When he spoke at the funeral of Fred McGee, the late Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla left no doubt about the respect he had for the man.

“Fred was the real deal,” Abdalla told those who had gathered in Mount Carmel Community Baptist Church to celebrate the life of McGee. “The enemy was coming right at him — he was wounded, but he still stood tall. And, when I say ‘stood tall,’ he was going toward the enemy.

“How brave he was in the face of danger. He was an all-American man,” Abdalla said during the Jan. 11, 2020, service.

McGee, who grew up in Bloomingdale, was only 23 when he faced that danger on Hill 528 during the Korean War. His unit had taken heavy fire and was ordered to fall back. Instead, McGee, who would be wounded in the leg and the face, led his fellow soldiers forward, helping to protect the wounded and ensuring his squad was able to neutralize the enemy,

On Jan. 3, McGee finally received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

“Cpl. Fred McGee,” President Joe Biden said during the ceremony in the White House. “A Mid-Westerner, a steelworker and a gunner in one of the first integrated Army units of the Korean War. Fred embodied the very best of our country.

“In June 1952, his unit was attacked,” Biden continued. “They took casualties. They were ordered to fall back. But Fred refused — refused to leave until he helped every wounded soldier evacuate.”

There were six others honored during that ceremony — Army Pvt. Bruno R. Orig, Pfc. Wataru Nakamura, Pfc. Charles R. Johnson, 1st Lt. Richard Cavazos and Capt. Hugh R. Nelson, like McGee, all received their awards posthumously, while Pfc. Kenneth J. David was able to accept his award in person.

The path to the Medal of Honor for McGee was a long one. He received Purple Hearts and a Silver Star, but it took the work of his family, many area residents and veterans, as well as elected officials, to finally get the upgrade more than 72 years after McGee stood tall on that hill in Tang-Wan-Ni.

All of those efforts were not lost on Biden, who has a little more than a week left in office and who acknowledged that the ceremony would be his last opportunity as commander-in-chief to make such a presentation.

” … I’m deeply privileged to honor seven Americans — American heroes,” he said. “And that’s not hyperbole — these are genuine, to their core, heroes.

“Heroes of different ranks, different positions and even different generations. But heroes who went above and beyond the call of duty. Heroes who all deserve our nation’s highest and oldest military recognition: The Medal of Honor.”

Those sentiments were shared by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who presided over the induction of the recipients into the Pentagon Hall of Heroes on Jan. 4.

“You know, it’s incredibly powerful to hear these seven stories of sheer bravery and sacrifice. The soldiers whom we honor today came from different walks of life, from different communities and from different parts of the country,” Austin said while speaking in Comy Hall at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

“Some of their families traced their roots in America back for generations. Some were children of immigrants. And some were descendants of slaves. Some of these heroes were commissioned officers in the Army. And some of them fought in the enlisted ranks.

“Yet, when each of these men faced terrible danger in battle, every one of them made the same choice: To put the mission first. To never quit. To never accept defeat. And to never leave a fallen comrade,” Austin continued.

That it took all of those years for McGee to receive the Medal of Honor for his efforts is a mystery. That his family accepted the award five years to the day he died has just a tinge of sadness, not because he was finally honored, but because he lived for 89 years and never had the chance to receive the recognition he had earned.

“You know, today’s ceremony reminds me of a basic truth in America,” Austin said. “We don’t always get things right. No country does. But in America, we never stop trying to be all that we can be, and to live up to our founding ideals, and to form that ‘more perfect union.’

“The recognition that we bestow on these heroes today is long overdue,” he continued. “But we got here. And we got here thanks to the loved one and the advocates who kept pushing, year after year.

“It’s thanks to the battle buddies, the witnesses to history, who wrote to their commanding officers — sometimes from their hospital beds just days after the battle. It’s thanks to the families, who kept the faith for their loved ones. It’s thanks to the civic groups, the journalists, the alumni chapters, the members of Congress, the congressional staffers and, above all, the veterans. You have all helped us to see the unmatched valor of these men’s deeds — and to forever set them in their rightful place of honor.”

Each of those recognized last week has helped to set a standard that others can strive to reach. In McGee’s case, his efforts were recognized in a comic book — Heroic Comics — which was printed in 1953. Austin talked about a significant inaccuracy in the publication, but added that could never diminish McGee’s efforts and legacy.

” … Although Fred was Black, his character in the comic book was white,” Austin explained. “And so when Fred saw the book, he was hurt and angry. ‘I felt like someone else was getting the accolades for what I did,’ he later said.

“But as a recipient of the Medal of Honor, Fred McGee will be forever remembered for who he was — and what he did.”

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)