It was in Korea that Sergeant Artice V. Watson, an open anti-Semite, commanded Rubin. Watson often “volunteered” Rubin for the most dangerous missions that threatened his life, as members of his unit later attested. Short, thin, big-eared, big-nosed, mild mannered and with a thick foreign accent, Rubin must have seemed a caricature Jew to him.
Rubin, however, had already survived far worse then the sergeant could imagine. Born in Hungary, he was sent to a concentration camp as a teenager. He lost his parents and sister to the Nazi extermination machine but had himself survived to be liberated from the Mauthausen concentration camp by American troops. Rubin had emigrated to the USA following the war, had attempted twice to enlist in the U.S. Army, and upon succeeding he served with extreme devotion.
In Korea, Rubin fought to his outmost and with great courage and skill, gaining the respect of his comrades and his commanders. Even without his sergeant's "help", Rubin found his way to highly dangerous assignments, as in the time he single-handedly defended a position for hours and so enabled his unit to pull back from superior enemy forces, or the time he insisted on going out alone to rescue a fellow soldier given up for dead.
For his acts of extraordinary bravery, Rubin was recommended three times for the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. Two separate commanding officers that nominated Rubin told his sergeant, Watson, to prepare the paperwork for the award. However, both officers were killed in action before they could make sure this was actually done. No paperwork was ever sent, and members of the unit indicated that Watson deliberately avoided following these orders.
Faced with the October 1950 Chinese invasion, the First Cavalry Division fought against overwhelming odds. Eventually, Rubin's unit was overrun. The wounded Rubin and many of his brothers in arms were captured, but his fight was far from over. As a prisoner of the North Koreans and the Chinese, Rubin fought to keep his comrades alive through the ordeal, constantly treating their wounds, making sure they got their share of the scant food, taking the sick to the latrines, and often sneaking out at night, at great personal risk, in order to find food for his brothers in arms. He was credited by fellow inmates for saving the lives of dozens through these actions.
Returning to the USA, Rubin turned to civilian life and long years of anonymity. In the 1980s, however, soldiers who had served alongside him in combat or survived the ordeal of prison with him began to petition for recognition of his valor. For years this had no result due to technicalities that prevented action. But in 2001, the United States Congress passed the Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act which reviewed case after case of Jewish heroism in battle. The reviews eventually reversed the rulings on 138 Jewish war veterans, including Rubin’s. The committee responsible for reviewing the proceedings concluded that these particular soldiers were denied recognition of their valor and sacrifice due to anti-Semitic considerations.
Fifty-five years after fighting for his country and for his fellow soldiers, Mr. Rubin went to the White House to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor from the hands of President George W. Bush.
His citation reads:
While his unit was retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, Corporal Rubin was assigned to stay behind to keep open the vital Taegu-Pusan Road link used by his withdrawing unit. During the ensuing battle, overwhelming numbers of North Korean troops assaulted a hill defended solely by Corporal Rubin. He inflicted a staggering number of casualties on the attacking force during his personal 24-hour battle, single-handedly slowing the enemy advance and allowing the 8th Cavalry Regiment to complete its withdrawal successfully.
Following the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, the 8th Cavalry Regiment proceeded northward and advanced into North Korea. During the advance, he helped capture several hundred North Korean soldiers.
On October 30, 1950, Chinese forces attacked his unit at Unsan, North Korea, during a massive nighttime assault. That night and throughout the next day, he manned a .30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the unit's line after three previous gunners became casualties. He continued to man his machine gun until his ammunition was exhausted. His determined stand slowed the pace of the enemy advance in his sector, permitting the remnants of his unit to retreat southward.
As the battle raged, Corporal Rubin was severely wounded and captured by the Chinese. Choosing to remain in the prison camp despite offers from the Chinese to return him to his native Hungary, Corporal Rubin disregarded his own personal safety and immediately began sneaking out of the camp at night in search of food for his comrades. Breaking into enemy food storehouses and gardens, he risked certain torture or death if caught. Corporal Rubin provided not only food to the starving Soldiers, but also desperately needed medical care and moral support for the sick and wounded of the POW camp.
His brave, selfless efforts were directly attributed to saving the lives of as many as forty of his fellow prisoners
