(Donn Esmonde – Buffalo News) Enemy soldiers called him The Ghost. No matter how many times they shot him, he came back. The Ghost. Little did the men of Hitler’s army know how the nickname would haunt him in another way.The Ghost. The man who is arguably Buffalo’s most glorious native son has all but disappeared from our consciousness. It is as if he never existed.
The first step in the revival of the region is to celebrate what is ours. That means touting everything from the chicken wing to our Frank Lloyd Wright masterworks. Yet we are the hometown of the most-decorated soldier in U.S. history, and most of us do not know his name.
Matt Urban grew up in Buffalo, graduated from East High School and went to Europe in 1941 with the Army’s 9th Infantry Division. He fought his way from North Africa through Sicily, Belgium, France and into Germany. For repeated valor, Urban was awarded the Medal of Honor, America’s highest battle award. It was one of his 29 medals, including the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, seven Purple Hearts for battle wounds and the French Croix de Guerre.
Urban’s citation listing for combat actions on the Arlington National Cemetery’s Web site ( www.arlingtoncemetery.net/murban.htm) reads like a WWII movie script…
