4 brave recipients share ties to Butler County
Though past and present members of the military are often recognized in numerous ways for their service, there is only one Medal of Honor — the highest honor the government can bestow.
On July 12, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law a bill giving the president the authority to award the Medal of Honor to soldiers who distinguished themselves with “gallantry in action” during the Civil War.
The guidelines for awarding the medal were later expanded by Congress to include any military conflict in which the U.S. military has a role.
There have been 3,493 recipients of the award, 79 of whom are alive, according to the Medal of Honor Society.
Four of those honorees have ties to Butler County, including one who was born here, one who is buried here and two who lived and went to school here before enlisting in the armed forces.
Bill May, historian and founder of the Butler County Civil War Roundtable, said the award honors an “act of ultimate bravery and self-sacrifice.”
“I think that the men who are awarded the Medal of Honor show the absolute total selflessness in themselves in order to save their fellow comrades and to help preserve our freedoms at the cost many times of their own lives,” May said.
These men should be commemorated and honored because they fought to secure and preserve the freedoms that Americans enjoy today, he said.
Wayne Perry, commander of District 25 of the VFW, said most recipients of the medal don't consider themselves to be heroes, but they deserve to be honored for doing something extraordinary.
“It's a great tribute to that person and also his family. He had the courage to go in there, and in some instances to come under fire, and rescue one of his members or protect a whole platoon,” he said.
Here are the four recipients with ties to the county and what they did to receive the medal.
Mills was originally from Middletown, N.Y. During the Civil War, he served in the 1st New York Mounted Rifles.He earned his medal for his actions on Sept. 4, 1862, at Sandy Cross Roads, N.C.While scouting the area, Mills came upon a group of Confederate soldiers and charged them without orders. Since they were caught by surprise, his company captured 120 men and 100 horses and mules.Mills gave a first-person account of what happened in the book “Deeds of Valor: How America's Civil War Heroes won the Medal of Honor,” published in 1905.“Before I realized it, I was right among the rebels. That I came out of the affair alive was a surprise to me. At the time, however, I thought of nothing but to capture the enemy before me. Unmindful of all danger I just kept yelling to them: 'Surrender — surrender — surrender,'” he said.Mills also had a role in tracking down two of the prisoners who escaped later that day, but were found at a nearby store and easily were recaptured.After the war, he settled in Chicora where he worked as a pumper in the oil industry.He was buried in the St. John's Reformed Church cemetery in Chicora in 1923.In 1993, the county Veterans Services office and the Chicora American Legion dedicated a new gravestone for Mills that shows that he won the Medal of Honor.His name also is listed on the Chicora Veterans Memorial, said Veterans Affairs Director John Cyprian.Cyprian said giving Mills a new grave stone 70 years after his burial was “righting a wrong.”“If anybody wins the highest award that our nation can give, I think it should be duly noted for future generations to understand where their freedoms came from,” he said.
Donaldson originally was from Butler County, according to the Medal of Honor Society website.During the Civil War, he was a sergeant with Company L of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry.On April 9, 1865, at The Battle of Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, Donaldson captured the flag of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, which earned him his Medal of Honor.It was the final major battle of the war as Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that same day.Donaldson is buried in Iowa where he died in 1920.
Pinder, who went by Joe, was born in McKees Rocks, Allegheny County.His family later moved to Butler, and he was a 1931 graduate of Butler High School.Before shipping off to fight in World War II, he was a minor-league baseball player with several teams. In 1935 he played for the Butler Indians, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.Pinder, who became a technician fifth grade, enlisted on Jan. 27, 1942, and served in the Army's 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.On D-Day, June 6, 1944, which also was his 32nd birthday, his division landed 100 yards off the shore near Colleville-sur-Mer, France.Pinder delivered a radio to the beach despite heavy machine gun and artillery fire, according to his citation signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.“Carrying a vitally important radio, he struggled toward shore in waist deep water. Only a few yards from his craft he was hit by enemy fire and was gravely wounded. Technician 5th Grade Pinder never stopped. He made shore and delivered the radio,” the citation reads.Refusing medical attention, Pinder went back out from behind cover multiple times to salvage another radio and other communications equipment. On his third trip into the water, he was hit in the face by machine gunfire, but continued to assist with establishing radio communication.After being shot a third time, Pinder died, though not until after radio communication had been established at the beachhead.He is buried in a cemetery in New Florence, Westmoreland CountyOn Jan. 4, 1945, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, which was given to his family.On May 11, 1949, the U.S. Army barracks in Zirndorf, Germany, were renamed Pinder Barracks in his honor, and today there is a business park there named Pinder Park.Michael Kraus, curator of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum in Pittsburgh, said that Pinder's medal is on display there after his family donated it several years ago.The museum also has the signed citation from Roosevelt, one of Pinder's baseball contracts and other artifacts from his life.The Medal of Honor was only issued to four soldiers for their actions on D-Day, making Pinder's story and his award an important part of one of the most important days in U.S. military history, Kraus said.“To me that medal is a national treasure. D-Day is a day that is so historic and represents the change of the current of the war in Europe,” he said.
Estocin was born in Turtle Creek, Allegheny County, and was a 1954 graduate of Slippery Rock University.He enlisted in the Navy in 1954 after finishing school and had reached the rank of lieutenant commander by 1967. He served as an attack pilot with Attack Squadron 192 during the Vietnam War.On April 26, 1967, he led a strike against a thermal power plant during which he spotted and attacked a surface-to-air missile site. Despite being hit by a missile, he regained control of his A-4 Skyhawk and launched his missiles before crashing.Though he was listed as a prisoner of war for years, a federal committee later determined that he probably died in the crash.He was awarded with the Medal of Honor on Feb. 27, 1978. His medal, purple heart, a bronze bust and other memorabilia are displayed in SRU's Medal of Honor Room in the North Hall.
