Forgotten Hero by Eric Poole | Books in Review

Eric Poole’s Forgotten Honor: The True Story of An American Hero (Xlilbris, 214 pp., $19.99, paper) is the well-written biography of–and tribute to–101st Airborne rifleman Leslie Sabo, who was killed in an NVA ambush on May 10, 1970, during the Cambodian incursion west of Pleiku while serving with Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment. Sabo’s fellow Screaming Eagles believed at the time that his courage under fire trying to save his buddies in an action that killed seven men deserved the Medal of Honor,   but the paperwork was lost.

Poole, a reporter and columnist for the Ellwood City Ledger , Sabo’s hometown newspaper in western Pennsylvania,   wrote an article about that situation in 2007, and that article, and this book have been part of an effort that resulted in the U.S. Army recommending in 2010 that Sabo receive the nation’s highest military battlefield honor.

—Marc Leepson