Washington, DC– The Washington Oxi Day Foundation announced today that the longest serving member in the history of the U.S. Congress, John Dingell, will be honored with the 2013 Oxi Day Greatest Generation Award recognizing an American veteran who served courageously during WWII.
Rep. Dingell will accept this award at a moving ceremony at the National World War II Memorial on Thursday, October 24th at 2:30 pm as part of the Third Annual Washington Oxi Day Celebration. Leaders in the Greek American community, American policymakers, ambassadors and officials from other nations and WWII veterans will be present at the event. Two other WWII veterans will also be honored: Christopher Mehiel (posthumously), on behalf of Greek-American veterans, and Konstantinos Korkas, on behalf of Greek veterans.
Rep. Dingell joined the US Army in 1944 at the age of eighteen. He rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant and received orders to take part in the first wave of a planned invasion of Japan in November of 1945. Upon leaving the Army, he received his undergraduate degree in chemistry and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Rep. Dingell was elected to Congress in 1955 and currently represents Michigan’s 12th Congressional District. He is one of only two WWII veterans still serving in Congress, and on June 7, 2013, he became the longest serving member (House or Senate) in the history of the U.S. Congress.
Dingell will be accepting the award on behalf of American veterans and in respect for the extraordinary courage of the Greek people who inflicted a fatal wound that was instrumental to the defeat of the Axis Forces in WWII
Previous recipients of the Oxi Day Greatest Generation Award have included former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Bob Dole, former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Benjamin Gilman, Greek-American veterans Andrew Athens and Mike Cokinos, and Greek veterans Antonios Kounalakis and Panagiotis Sakellaris.
For pictures and video of this ceremony in previous years, please click on the following links:
Participation in this event at the WWII Memorial is free due to the generosity of our sponsors, but registration is required. Please rsvp to RSVP@oxidayfoundation.org.