Durbin honors Mundelein World War II veteran with flag

Decorated World War II veteran Jim Zale always denies he's a hero -- and he did so again Tuesday when that label was thrust upon him by Illinois' senior senator.

"I was only one," Zale, 83, of Mundelein, told Sen. Dick Durbin during the senator's visit to Libertyville High School. "There were thousands of us."

Durbin was at the school to present Zale, who's a longtime mail courier for Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128, with a U.S. flag that flew over the Capitol on June 6, 2007 -- the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Zale landed on the Normandy beach on D-Day as a member of the 3rd Infantry Division. He spent the rest of the war fighting through Europe and into Germany.

He saw combat in the French countryside's infamous hedgerows, survived the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate a German concentration camp.

District 128 officials have honored Zale several times in recent years. They awarded him a high school diploma in 2006, a document he didn't earn as a teen because he had been drafted into the Army.

Two years earlier, co-workers treated Zale and his wife, Elizabeth, to a European tour that included stops at some of the battlefields on which he fought.

In his remarks in the school library, Durbin said he had heard of Zale's reluctance to speak about his military experience in heroic terms.

"But we want to make sure that we speak about it today," the Democratic lawmaker said.

About 75 students, teachers and administrators attended the presentation. Afterward, about a dozen teens asked Durbin questions on topics including the federal budget, the war in Iraq and Congress' recent hearings about steroid use in baseball.