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Essa’s mother had received a telegram<br />
saying he had been “slightly<br />
wounded” and that she would be<br />
later advised. In a letter he had previously<br />
sent her before being shot, he<br />
expressed his uncertainty about coming<br />
back home. He had told her to<br />
sell his 1936 Olds to his best friend<br />
Charlie, so she did, fearing that may<br />
have been her son’s last request for<br />
her.<br />
Fortunately, she also received<br />
word that he was coming back to the<br />
US to heal at a hospital one state<br />
away.<br />
In England, the doctors performed<br />
some surgeries on Essa’s ankle,<br />
and then he was sent to Crile<br />
Military Hospital in Cleveland,<br />
Ohio for more. After six surgeries for<br />
the harsh wound, the Army presented<br />
him with an honorable discharge<br />
in 1945 before the war ended.<br />
A serviceman drove Essa home to<br />
Detroit 13 months after he arrived in<br />
Ohio. The family threw a little party<br />
and had some friends come by. He<br />
received the Purple Heart and took<br />
advantage of the GI Bill to learn to<br />
be a butcher. Thereafter, he went to<br />
Iraq to find his bride. He has been<br />
married to Samira for 62 years and<br />
has five kids.<br />
Peter Essa was also awarded the<br />
Bronze Star and the Combat Infantry<br />
Badge, as well as the European-African-Middle-Easter<br />
Campaign Medal.<br />
He is 95 years old and lives in metro-<br />
Detroit. Though the Battle of Normandy<br />
raged on for another month<br />
without him, Essa was still part of<br />
liberating France from the Nazis and<br />
is a true American hero.<br />
<strong>NOVEMBER</strong> <strong>2020</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 29