When U.S. Army veteran and Freemansburg resident Charles F. Cope Jr. visited State Representative Steve Samuelson's office this past March, he was hoping to get some assistance in obtaining military medals he was due. Samuelson's legislative assistant Rosemary Hensel went to work on his request by contacting the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Recently, Cope, his family and some friends, paid another visit to Samuelson's office where he was presented with those medals by Samuelson, State Representative Bob Freeman and Northampton County Veterans Affairs Director Freddie Ramirez Jr. He received the National Defense Service Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal and Sharpshooter Badge with Pistol Bar.

Cope, a private serving in the Eighth U.S. Army Sentry Dog Detachment, had spent service time in South Korea during the late 1950s as part of the U.S. peacekeeping presence after the Korean War. Serving in the military police with his partner, a German shepherd named Rebel, Cope helped to train other dog handlers.

It was not always peaceful during his tour of duty, according to Cope, as American occupation forces faced an occasional skirmish with enemy forces, assisted with bomb disposal duties, and in 1959 riots in Seoul had his own life threatened twice in one day. He credited Rebel with saving his life during those attacks.

His daughter, Rosie Kirby, said one of her father's saddest moments was having to put down Rebel prior to the end of his deployment and return stateside. "It still bothers him," she said. Servicemen were not permitted to bring their service dogs home with them and after they had been trained to respond only to their individual handlers.

Cope returned to civilian life with an honorable discharge in March 1961. Like most American servicemen and women, he found employment and raised a family. He attended forest ranger school briefly, was a volunteer fireman, a trucker and worked in construction over his lifetime. His daughter said that he used to participate in the Steel City Hill Climb and that he also repaired motorcycles.

In Samuelson's office, Cope's daughter and grandsons, Anthony and Hunter Kirby, pinned the three medals to his jacket. A quiet, unassuming man, he seemed a little embarrassed by all the attention, yet he seemed proud of his service and happy that family and friends could join him for the brief ceremony at which Samuelson, Freeman and Ramirez each presented a medal.

Rosie Kirby said that over the years there had been family discussions about his days in the service. She related that her father still has an occasional nightmare brought on by experiences during his military time. It was in one of those discussions that the issue of his medals had come up, she said.

When asked what he would do with his medals, Cope replied simply, "They'll go to my grandkids when I die."