Wheaton school to hold Medal of Honor ceremony

A Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to a Wheaton native has found a home at the school that bears his name, and a dedication ceremony Friday, May 27, will include the soldier’s family and U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam.

The ceremony starts at 10:30 a.m. at Monroe Middle School, 1855 Manchester Road, Wheaton. Roskam will speak at the event along with Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 Superintendent Brian Harris, Principal Jason Stipp and Michelle Monroe Gattas, the niece of the school’s namesake, James Howard Monroe.

Official accounts say Pfc. Monroe jumped on a live grenade to smother it and save two fellow soldiers in Vietnam’s Hoai Nhon Province on Feb. 16, 1967.

Monroe’s parents accepted the medal in 1968 and kept it until his mother died in 2000, when their other son, Gattas’ father, brought it to his home in Wheaton. After Gattas’ father’s death in 2007, she took the medal to her Ottawa, Wis., home but has said she felt it didn’t belong with her.

Since the fall, Stipp has worked with Gattas to try to find a home for her uncle’s medal. The effort began while Gattas was in Wheaton to visit the gravesite of her “Uncle Jimmy.” She received a phone call from Assistant Principal Sue Baldus and took it as a sign, deciding to give the medal to the school.

Monroe graduated from Wheaton Central High School in 1962 and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1966.

Not long after his death, the school district renamed Westside Junior High School after Monroe. The school’s entryway now features a mural of the hero alongside a mural of an eagle holding a Medal of Honor in its talons. Last week, crews completed work on a memorial wall dedicated to Monroe.