After theft, veteran's kin gets new medals

The grandson of a decorated World War II veteran accepted a new set of valor and service medals Monday to replace those stolen last month in a burglary at the grandson's machine shop in Bohemia.

James McGuigan and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), who secured the replacement Purple Heart and other medals, said they still hoped the thieves would return the items stolen on Oct. 27, including the original dog tags of Francis McGuigan, who died in 2002.

"I think they should really take a hard look at what they stole and come to the realization of what they actually stole," James McGuigan of Sayville said as he stood next to Israel with the replacements at McGuigan's Bohemia factory. "I think they just look at it as some tokens. And they're not. It's a personal history of my family."

McGuigan said the theft appeared to be a random act of vandalism. Israel called it "one of the most despicable wrongs that anyone can imagine."

"I don't know what kind of coward would snatch a medal that was secured for that coward by sacrifice," Israel said.

The stolen items were in a shadow box hanging on a wall of McGuigan's ground-floor office on Knickerbocker Avenue. The thieves apparently smashed the window but did not enter, perhaps because they saw the motion detectors in the well-lit office, McGuigan said. They probably reached in and grabbed the box, he said.

Such military memorabilia is sometimes sold online. Israel said he has asked the Department of Defense to examine the scope of the theft of memorabilia and the market for them.

His grandson said Francis McGuigan, who lived most of his life in Brentwood, told him he was one of six men in his 60-man unit who survived a D-Day assault on the cliffs overlooking an invasion beach to take out large enemy guns. He was wounded later in the Battle of the Bulge and another action, his grandson said.

He said he did not know what unit his grandfather was with during the assault. Military records were incomplete, according to Israel's staff, but McGuigan was a heavy machine-gunner and was a Ranger and was in the 112th Infantry at points in his military career.

Suffolk police said Monday the theft was still under investigation, and asked anyone with information to call the Fifth Squad at 631-854-8552 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS. All calls will remain anonymous.