James Megellas

Class of 1942: WWII hero

A funeral with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery saw Lt. Col. James Megellas laid to rest in 2022. Megellas, a native of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, was a paratrooper and one of the most decorated soldiers of the 82nd Airborne during World War II.

During World War II, Magellas fought in the Italian and Western European campaign. He single-handedly knocked out a German tank, rowed across a Dutch river in a flimsy boat under enemy fire, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and jumped into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden.

He earned the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Starts, two Purple Hearts, Presidential Citation with cluster, the Belgium Fouragere, six Campaign Stars, and Master Parachutist badge. He has been nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor several times.

He was featured in his autobiography, “All the Way to Berlin: A Paratrooper at War in Europe,” in 2003 and the documentary “Maggie’s War: A True Story of Courage, Leadership and Valor in World War II.” John Ratzenberger of “Cheers” fame played him in the 1977 Hollywood movie “A Bridge Too Far.”

James Megellas was born March 11, 1917. At Ripon, he majored in mathematics and participated in Alpha Omega Alpha, football, boxing, Cadet Officers Club and Air Corp Flying Cadet training. On one of his visits back to campus, Megellas praised the environment of Ripon that led to his success and that of many others. He said his ROTC training gave him and other Ripon cadets a sense of togetherness, of something greater than themselves and a lot of camaraderie.

“What we did get and take with us from Ripon — you’ve heard the phrase ‘man is a product of his environment.’ We were a product of this environment, of a small-town school where students were close, worked together and created a bond, respected each other, a faculty that was caring that you could go to at any time and they would help you. … It was that environment that made us into the soldiers that we were.”

He said his fellow Ripon soldiers “carried the colors of this College forward,” and Ripon was a factor in the success of the men of his generation. “It produced young men who excelled in what they did, and I’m proud to say that I was one of them,” he said.

He was discharged from the Army with the rank of Captain and continued serving as a Citizen-Soldier, retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He received the Military Order of Willhelm Orange Lanyard from the Dutch Minister of War in Berlin in 1945, the first American to do so.

Magellas served in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for 32 years, working in Yemen, Panama, South Vietnam and Columbia, and was presented with the National Chieu Hoi Medal and the Psychological Warfare Medal from the South Vietnamese government.

He died April 2, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Showing their respects at his Sept. 2, 2022, funeral were several high-ranking officers, including Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James C. McConville, Army Chief of Staff; and Maj. Gen. Christopher C. LaNeve, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.