CADILLAC — On Saturday, bipartisan legislation honoring the late Corporal Duane Dewey, a Michigan native who served in the Marines in the Korean War and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, was signed into law.
The legislation honors Duane Dewey’s service and his care for his fellow veterans by renaming the outpatient VA clinic in Cadillac.
While leading a machine gun squad in combat in Korea, Dewey was injured by an enemy grenade. As he was being treated for his wounds, a second grenade landed near him. He alerted his team and jumped on the explosive to smother the blast, saving the lives of his fellow Marines.
Miraculously he survived, and when he returned home to Michigan he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Dwight Eisenhower. At the presentation ceremony, Eisenhower joked that Duane must have “a body of steel.”
The Duane Dewey VA Clinic is located at 1905 North Mitchell Street in Cadillac and is there to assist veterans with a variety of services for primary care and specialty health care.
