NEW GLOUCESTER – Not wanting his family or the greater community to forget his cousin’s heroic acts during the Korean conflict, New Gloucester’s Jim Marshall is holding a surprise party this weekend in honor of Herbert “Junior” Joy, whose wartime actions saved lives.

Joy, a native of Portland and now resident of Old Orchard Beach, single-handedly dismantled a machine-gun nest filled with North Korean soldiers in July 1952 on a site known as Hill 404. For his brave actions, he earned the U.S. Silver Star as well as Purple Heart. He will be honored once again on Saturday in Casco with Maine’s Silver Star presented by Maine Army National Guard Adjutant Gen. John Libby.

Also attending Saturday’s surprise party, which Joy believes is a birthday party for his cousin Jim, will be Joy’s local VFW post commander in Old Orchard Beach, Richard Giroux, as well as Peter Ogden, director of the Bureau of Veteran Services in Augusta. Ogden, who introduced the Maine Silver Star program in 2006, is attempting to honor the 6,000 or so Mainers who have been wounded in action. “Working backward” by honoring the more elderly Maine veterans, Ogden has already presented about 1,000 silver stars to Maine veterans. Of Joy’s ceremony on Saturday, Ogden said, “This will be a great time to recognize one of our true heroes.”

Marshall – who is organizing the event with his wife Beth, as well as Joy’s oldest daughter, Debbie Wildes of Freeport – couldn’t be more proud of his cousin, and he wants his extended family, once far flung and not very close, to come together to share that pride as well. While the public isn’t invited to the surprise bash to be held at the family camp in Casco, Marshall wants everyone to remember Joy’s heroic deeds, and that includes, especially, his own family.

“I think after all these years, people don’t realize what took place,” Marshall said. “I just want our family to know the sacrifice that was given by one of our members as well as others who are fighting for our freedom. And they should be recognized and never forgotten.”

According to Army records, Joy’s act of bravery took place on Hill 404 in Chich’on, North Korea on July 3, 1952 between 6:20 a.m. and 11 a.m. As was the case with most of the battles in Korea, the Army was trying to take the hill, one of many nameless hills that dotted the rough landscape.

During the firefight, a North Korean machine gun nest was perched atop the hill, which featured a 40-degree slope with sandy and rocky surface. Tree cover faded out halfway to the top, meaning enemy machine gunners could take direct aim at assaulting troops attempting to scale the hill.

According to the report, which served as the official record for his Silver Star and Purple Heart awards, Joy and his comrades were pinned down by enemy fire soon after beginning their assault of the hill.

“On his own initiative and with complete disregard for his own personal safety, (Joy) placed his machine gun in an exposed position to deliver accurate fire on the enemy position,” the report said. In the process, Joy was hit several times with mortar fragments launched from the enemy’s perch but “continued to deliver heavy fire on the enemy neutralizing the position and enabling his squad to continue in their assault.” And although seriously wounded during the skirmish, “he refused medical aid until the objective was secured and the mission completed.”

Joy’s heroics also gained him some fame in the form of a Heroic Comics entry published soon after the episode. In the three-page graphic novel spread, “Jolting Joy,” as the comic nicknamed him, quoted Joy’s description of the event, which is more specific than the Army’s report. In it, Joy described an aerial bombardment of the hill the night before the assault on Hill 404. In the morning, he said, “I was so tense that the weight of my machine gun felt like a feather.”

According to the depiction, the North Koreans let loose with mortars, which is when Joy started firing his machine gun, one round at a time since the rifle was misfiring. At that moment, his co-machine gunner was killed and Joy was hit in the wrist by shrapnel and was bleeding profusely. Abandoning his machine gun, Joy stormed the North Korean’s trench with hand grenades and, once the dust had cleared, found 45 of the 50 enemy soldiers dead in the trench, with the remaining five soldiers surrendering.

For his brave actions, the Department of the Army awarded Joy the Silver Star for “gallantry in action” and the Purple Heart “for wounds received as the result of hostile action.”

Years later, Marshall said Joy still has to deal with repercussions from the wrist injury he suffered in Korea. But if it wasn’t for a priest who came to his aid, the Army may have amputated the hand since the injury was so severe.

“He was wounded in the leg and hand, and they were going to take the hand off, but he met a priest who convinced the Army that a Swedish doctor on a hospital ship could fix his hand since he knew how to work with veins and muscles,” Marshall said. “Amazingly, he regained almost all the use of his hand.”