By JEFF STITT
Raymond Weigand Jr., a 99-year-old decorated U.S. Navy veteran, could talk for hours about his service during World War II.
The McKeesport native and longtime Liberty Borough resident is proud of the time he spent aboard the USS Alabama, working his way through the ranks to gunner’s mate second class.
That’s why he’s elated that, on the eve of Veterans Day, he received an honor he’s been looking forward to for months — the Russian Medal of Ushakov.
Earlier this year, Weigand learned from the USS Alabama Crewman’s Association that he may be eligible for the Ushakov Medal due to having served during Allied missions in the Arctic Circle in the early 1940s.
The medal is only awarded to USS Alabama (BB-60) crewmen who were aboard the battleship between April and Aug. 1, 1943, and are still living, according to a correspondence between Jane Weigand and the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Raymond Weigand said a fellow member of the Crewman’s Association told him that there are only a handful of veterans in the Crewman’s Association who are still alive and eligible to receive the award.
Margaret Weigand said she was happy to see her dad receive the award.
“I’m very patriotic, and I’m appreciative of all my family members who have served,” she said. “I’m very happy for him and that it happened in his lifetime.”
Weigand’s loved ones set the process in motion by reaching out to historian Todd Kraemer of the USS Alabama Crewman’s Association.
Eventually, after corresponding with the Embassy of the Russian Federation’s regional U.S. Consulate District and the U.S. Russian Embassy in Washington D.C., the family received word that Weigand was eligible for the medal as a result of serving aboard the Alabama and participating in the protection and/or defense of supply convoys to Russia.
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