After nearly 70 years of waiting, Ed Soria finally received his Eagle Scout Award.
According to the Boy Scouts of America, Ed served in the US Army during the Korean War. Shortly before leaving for duty, Ed submitted his paperwork to earn the rank of Eagle Scout but never received his award, until last week.
During the war, Ed and 700 others were captured and taken as prisoners of war. Only 296 of those POWs survived (known as the Tiger Survivors for the Tiger Death March) and Ed was fortunate enough to be one of them. To this day, Ed feels strongly that his experience as a Boy Scout directly contributed to his survival.
“My Eagle Scout training helped me tremendously to survive in a very harsh environment,” Soria said.
While he believes that the award may have been given to his mother while he was gone, it never surfaced when he returned home from the war. He then went on to serve again in Vietnam years later.
68 years after submitting his final paperwork, Ed finally received his Eagle Scout award at his home in Lake Shastina, California. “Only in America, such a free country, a beautiful country that we have, can a man accomplish his dreams – as far as you can go – and it’s all up to you,” Soria says.
Soria says he still keeps in contact with the remaining Tiger Survivors. He plans to hang his Eagle Scout medals with his other military medal accomplishments in his home.
