A piece of history has been reunited with the family of a Capital Region veteran who died in the Korean War.
A Purple Heart medal was recovered as part of a police investigation in the city of Rensselaer. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says the medal was "lost" for 72 years.
"I just want to talk about Averill J. Williams a little bit," said McCoy. "He was a brave man whose sacrifice was with honor and dignity, and was awarded the Purple Heart. He was a member of the Headquarters Company, Second Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment and 1st Cavalry Division. And in 1950, on July 31st, he volunteered to carry ammunition to a company that obviously was hard to get to. “
According to the Korean War Projectwebsite , as Williams “rendered aid to a wounded comrade, he was killed by enemy artillery fire."
Detective Sergeant Michael Deso says while investigating a case of auto theft, the Rensselaer Police Department found medals awarded to Williams' family decades ago by Albany Mayor Erastus Corning.
“This all started about a month ago, our officer Hughes I believe located a stolen vehicle in our city that was stolen out of the city of Albany," said Deso. "And during the course of that, of course, we have to tow it so the owner can get it back, and during the course of that, he was able to locate Silver Star Medal, a Purple Heart and part of an Army Commendation Medal. We did some legwork in this. But believe it or not, Jim did most of the legwork.”
"Jim" is James VanApeldorn. Deso says VanApeldorn, a genealogy buff, extensively researched and uploaded information to social media about his uncle and the missing heirlooms. Detectives came across it as they scoured the web for clues as to who might be the owner of the Purple Heart. Here’s VanApeldorn:
"I have articles of my aunt and uncle, my grand-aunt and -uncle, receiving these medals from Corning at the time," said VanApeldorn. "And he was also, according to the article, he was the first city of Albany resident killed in Korea. So I believe that's why it made the newspaper. But it's an honor, it's... I'm just lost for words right now."
Deso and McCoy presented VanApeldorn with the recovered medals last week at the Albany County Office Building.
"It was a group effort from our officers, from our clerks, from our community through our Facebook group," Deso said. "We can't say enough thank yous. The most important thing is we want to say thank you to our veterans, our Gold Star families, which Jim's family is a Gold Star family. And we don't want to forget Averill Williams Jr. He's an American hero, and he's got the medals to prove it."
Williams is buried at Graceland cemetery in Albany.
