BUSH HAILS A HERO EFFORTS OF USC ALUMNI WIN MEDAL OF HONOR FOR ARMY DENTIST.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Represented by a band of brothers he never knew, a Los Angeles war hero was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday by President George W. Bush in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.

``It's just unbelievable. I'm not letting this out of my hands,'' said Dr. Robert West of Calabasas, moments after he had accepted the nation's highest military honor on behalf of Capt. Ben Louis Salomon.

An Army dentist, Salomon sacrificed his life to save more than 30 wounded comrades during the 1944 battle of Saipan.

West, 75, of Calabasas, with help from other University of Southern California Dental School alumni, spent five years researching the case and advocating the cause of Salomon, who grew up in West Los Angeles and graduated from USC in 1937.

West, a World War II Navy veteran and 1952 USC grad, determined that Salomon had been incorrectly denied the Medal of Honor on the grounds that he was a medic and therefore ineligible for the decoration. He convinced Pentagon officials that Salomon had taken up arms in defense of his patients and therefore merited the decoration.

``Capt. Salomon is represented today by a true friend, Dr. Robert West,'' said Bush, who noted that Salomon was an only child whose parents died decades ago.

``No one who knew him is with us this afternoon, yet the nation will always know Ben Louis Salomon by the (Medal of Honor) citation to be read shortly,'' added Bush. ``It tells of one young man who was the equal of 100, a person of true valor who now receives the honor due him from a grateful country.''

West, who stood through the ceremony as ramrod straight as he was in his days as a World War II Navy medic, said: ``I know that Dr. Ben and his parents are up there smiling today.''

Recounting his private meeting with Bush before the ceremony, West said he told the president that he ``had come to think of Ben Salomon as a member of my family.''

He said he also hoped some of the men saved by Salomon in 1944 might learn of Wednesday's ceremony via news reports and join in celebrating his bravery.

West's research found that Salomon was treating patients in a field hospital on the Pacific island of Saipan on July 7, 1944, when his Army unit was attacked by 5,000 Japanese troops.

As the hospital was being overrun, he ordered medics to evacuate all of the wounded to safety in a rear area. As he took over a machine gun from a fallen comrade, Salomon told the medics: ``I'll hold them off until you get to safety. See you later.''

Salomon's bullet-riddled body was found at his post the next day, surrounded by 98 enemy dead. All of his patients and medics made it to safety.

West was joined by his wife, Gloria, who admitted she was ``shaking like a leaf at the prospect of meeting the president,'' daughter Kristin Franks of Thousand Oaks and several other USC Dental School alumni.

Former Army Secretary Louis Caldera, who approved Salomon's medal shortly before leaving office in January, was also in attendance. He is now a vice chancellor of the California State University system.

Dr. Gene Manusov of West Los Angeles, a 1955 USC grad, said he had a special affinity for Salomon.

``We're both Jews and I know that he probably faced discrimination in those days,'' said Manusov, who is executive director of Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity, a group formed in 1907 in response to rules that banned Jews from joining most campus organizations.

``Members who knew Salomon said he wanted to join Alpha Omega at USC, but could not afford the dues,'' said Manusov.

West and Manusov credited Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, with helping them wade through the military chains of command and the maze of Pentagon bureaucracy. Sherman, in turn, credited John Anderson, the constituent services director of his Woodland Hills office.

``This is a Trojan day if there ever was one,'' said Sherman, a University of California, Los Angeles, graduate who said he ``marveled at the dedication shown by men linked by the fact that they went to the same school.''

``Even though I'm a Bruin, I have never admired USC alumni more than I do today.''

Sherman and the USC alums are planning a graveside ceremony at Forest Lawn in Glendale, where Salomon is buried alongside his parents, Ben and Bess. West and his party will travel today to the Pentagon to see Salomon's name enshrined with more than 2,300 Medal of Honor winners.

Salomon's medal will go on display at the Army Dental School in Texas. A copy will be given to the USC Dental School.

Salomon's small party of advocates stood in contrast to the dozens of relatives and supporters of Army Capt. Jon Swanson, Wednesday's other honoree, a helicopter pilot who was killed in action in Cambodia in 1971.

A special guest at Wednesday's ceremony was Medal of Honor winner Alfred Rascon, who grew up in Oxnard and was recommended for the award for his valor in Vietnam in 1966. He had to wait until 2000 to get his medal.

``As so often happens, it was a paperwork thing that was out of my hands,'' said Rascon, now director of the Selective Service System. ``The waiting doesn't matter.

``What this medal is all about is people who take care of their own. It's a special brotherhood.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Robert West, right, receives a Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush on behalf of Army Capt. Ben Louis Salomon.

Ron Edmonds/Associated Press