Twist of fate reunites war hero's medals with only son

A soldier’s medals are his history. They tell you where the soldier has been and what he has done.

The stories behind the medals can be more. They can tell you who the man or woman is, their character and their worth, not just as a soldier, but as a person. Sometimes those medals — and the stories — come unexpectedly out of the past. On rare occasions, they join together to tell the story of a man who is better than the medals he wears. New Albany once had such a man. In 1945, he lived at 1759 DePauw Ave.

Delbert D. Cornwell was born Sept. 3, 1907, just north of Campbellsburg. His upbringing was typical for a boy living in a rural area in the early 1900s. There was no running water, no electricity and no phones. But there was plenty of sibling competition; Delbert had eight brothers and sisters.

Two of his sisters, Mary and Kathleen, were stricken with polio. Mary remembers how Delbert took care of them as young girls — helping them get around and spending time with them.

Now of Orlando, Fla., she says, “He was such a good brother always taking care of Kathleen and me. I had a bad limp from the Polio and Delbert watched out for me.

“When I was older he let me move in with him so I could go to business school. He had such a kind heart.”

Cornwell’s parents apparently saw more in him than a kind heart. Although Cornwell was attending Campbellsburg High School, his parents suggested going to Salem High School, because they offered more courses.

Soon, Cornwell was making a 16-mile trip by buggy to Salem High. Through the week, he stayed in Salem and returned to Campbellsburg for the weekends. While in Salem, Cornwell heard about the National Guard. Quick to spot a chance to help his family and serve his country, he joined. On Oct. 15, 1923, he became Pvt. Cornwell, Indiana National Guard.

As it turned out, Cornwell wasn’t just a good brother, he was an excellent soldier. Rising through the ranks quickly, Pvt. Cornwell was soon Capt. Cornwell. He led Salem’s C Company during the 1937 floods and to Cincinnati to help restore order during a labor strike.

By 1944, Lt. Colonel Cornwell was leading the 1-152 Infantry headquartered in New Albany in a fight for their lives against the Japanese Army in the Philippines.

The fighting was close and hard. Raymond Cotner, a Distinguished Service Cross winner from New Amsterdam, Ind., remembers Lt. Col. Cornwell.

“He was an aggressive fighter, an excellent combat commander,” Cotner said. “Not gung-ho, but always able to win the fight. He was smart and tough.”

Another Southern Indiana soldier — Adrian Jacobs of Corydon — knew Cornwell for four years. Jacobs, wounded twice, led a machine gun squad in some of the heaviest fighting in the Philippines.

“He was a good commander, he wasn’t afraid of anything,” Jacobs said of Cornwell. “He went with you on patrols and missions and always kept his headquarters just a few yards behind the front line.”

Records agree with Cotner and Jacobs. “The History of Washington County, Indiana 1916-1976” says, “Lieutenant Colonel Delbert Cornwell was cited for gallantry in action and aggressive leadership in the face of heavy enemy fire and was awarded the Silver Star.”

By November of 1945, the war was over. Cornwell and his soldiers were home.

Home for Cornwell, his wife and 15-year-old son Don — a student at New Albany High School — was 1759 DePauw Ave. His wife and son had moved there when Cornwell left for the Philippines.

Now the family started their new life together there. Despite the years of combat and horrors of war, Cornwell decided the fight wasn’t over.

Cornwell took it upon himself to visit the families of the soldiers he led who never came home. He didn’t have to do it, he just felt he should.

Salem’s C Company had been hit particularly hard in one fight. Cotner had witnessed that fight.

“C Company was advancing on our flank just slightly above us,” Cotner recalled. “The Japanese got behind and to the front of C Company, and opened up on them with machine guns and mortars. By nightfall, only 23 men out of that company were able to stand duty.”

It was the families of these men and the families of fallen soldiers from his other units that Cornwell felt obligated to meet with. It often wasn’t pleasant.

“Some of the people blamed dad,” his son Don said from his home in Richmond, Va. “He took a hand gun to the father of a sergeant who had been killed. The man took the gun, but wouldn’t speak to dad.”

The stress of the war, the stress of his perceived obligation or just plain bad luck settled the issue. On Dec. 14, 1945, at age 38 — just one month after returning home — Lt. Col. Delbert D. Cornwell was dead. His Floyd County death certificate says Cornwell died of Acute Myocarditis, a heart ailment. His body rests today at Crown Hill Cemetery in Salem.

For most soldiers that would be the end of the story. Soldiers, like memories, eventually fade away and become all but forgotten. But Cornwell wasn’t like most soldiers.

James McMillan left Milan — located about 60 miles north of Cornwell’s birthplace of Campbellsburg — in 1980 to serve his nation in the U.S. Navy.

Eventually rising to the rank of commander, McMillan found himself in Dam Neck, Va., working for Fleet Command Training Center Atlantic.

In 2004, his men were cleaning out old file cabinets in a classroom. They found a War Department identification photo dated 1945 and the medals that went with the soldier pictured in the photo.

After 59 years, Cornwell’s ID and medals had unexplainably turned up at a naval base on the east coast.

That started a two year quest to return those medals to their rightful owner or closest family member.

“I knew those were the medals of quite a soldier for our nation,” Cmdr. McMillan said. “I couldn’t stand the thought of those things being passed around at some flea market when I knew the family would want them.”

McMillan tried locating Cornwells in the local area of the base. He asked other military friends and questioned former students in his school, all with no success.

Finally, in 2006 while doing a computer search, he turned up an article in The (New Albany) Tribune dated April 7, 1945. The article made a passing reference to a Lt. Col. Cornwell who had written to his wife at 1759 DePauw Ave., telling her of the deaths of two of his soldiers.

McMillan contacted The Tribune asking for help in locating Cornwell or his nearest family, so he could return the long-lost medals and ID card.

After several weeks of searching, The Tribune found Don, Cornwell’s only child, living in Richmond.

Soon, Cornwell’s military honors will be delivered to his son.

Pat Boucher is a freelance journalist and journalism student at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.

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Delbert D. Cornwell died in New Albany in 1945

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