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Polish-American group fights for stamp honoring WWII hero Matt Urban
Buffalo veteran tied with Audie Murphy for the most decorations in World War II

By Dan Herbeck NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 10/13/07 9:16 AM

World War II hero Audie Murphy got his own U.S. postage stamp. So did Elvis Presley, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Buffalo’s most decorated war veteran, the late Matt L. Urban, should get a stamp, too, according to organizers of a nationwide petition drive.

The Polish American Congress recently renewed its petition drive and other efforts to convince the U.S. Postal Service to honor Urban with a stamp.

The organization argues that Urban and Murphy — both U.S. Army veterans from World War II — are the two most decorated veterans from that war. Murphy’s face was put on a stamp in 2001, and the group wants Urban to receive the same honor.

“This is nothing against Audie Murphy. These are two, equally decorated war heroes, and Matt Urban’s time has come,” said Anthony J. Bajdek, a vice president of the Polish American Congress.

With all the renewed interest in World War II, largely resulting from the Public Broadcasting System’s popular documentary series “The War,” this is a “perfect time” for the Postal Service to recognize Urban, Bajdek said.

“More and more of these World War II veterans are dying every day, and honoring Matt would be another nice way of remembering them,” he said.

At this point, the Postal Service has no plans for a Matt Urban stamp, according to Roy Betts, a spokesman for the service.

“The citizens stamp advisory committee took him under consideration in the summer of 2000 and did not recommend him for a stamp,” Betts said, “so he is not under consideration.”

In a nation where Elvis and Mickey Mouse wound up on postage stamps, Urban certainly deserves one, in Bajdek’s view.

He said his organization first began pushing for an Urban stamp in 1997. Since then, the Polish group has collected more than 60,000 signatures on its petitions. Bajdek wants to collect more signatures before again approaching the Postal Service later this year. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll begin lobbying members of Congress,” he said.

Urban — who was born in Buffalo as Matthew Louis Urbanowicz — died in Holland, Mich., in 1995. He was 75. As a lieutenant colonel in charge of an infantry battalion, Urban was shot seven times, including once in the throat.

He was credited with repeatedly risking his life to save other soldiers, and with killing 116 German soldiers from his machine gun nest in one day. Like Murphy, Urban received the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, for repeatedly risking his life beyond the call of duty.

The Web site of Arlington National Cemetery — where both soldiers are buried — says Urban’s exploits on World War II battlefields “earned him as many citations as the legendary Audie Murphy.”

Urban won 29 combat medals for his service with the Ninth Army Division’s 60th Regiment in many of the war’s bloodiest battles, including the D-Day invasion of France. He also fought in North Africa, Sicily and Germany.

“We went overseas quietly, with no bands or fanfare, to do a job,” Urban told The Buffalo News in a 1991 interview. “At first, [war] feels like an adventure, and in some ways, it is an adventure . . . But when that first shot is fired, and you see the buddy next to you get blown up, you know it isn’t a game. From then on, it’s kill or be killed.”

The Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Services Center on Broadway, which provides services to needy families on Buffalo’s East Side, is named after the war hero. Urban moved to Port Huron, Mich., after the war but maintained close contact with friends and family members in Buffalo until his death.

For years, there have been disputes over whether Murphy, a native of Texas who died in 1971 and also earned 29 medals, or Urban should be considered the most decorated combat veteran from World War II.

Bajdek said Urban had to wait until 1980 to receive his Medal of Honor because the government misplaced records of his heroic deeds. He is convinced that — like Murphy — Urban would have become a national folk hero right after the war if not for the paperwork error.

“Unintentional error though it was, it was an injustice to him and his family,” Bajdek said.

He said Urban’s supporters can read and download copies of the petition by going to the Polish American Congress Web site at www.polamcon.org.