It allowed a one-year window for cases like her father’s to be resubmitted. There were strict guidelines. Eyewitnesses were needed to verify acts of valor being studied nearly a century later.

Shemin-Roth just happened to have a trove of well-organized documents at her fingertips, including an old Distinguished Service Cross recommendation letter with a list of six witnesses who said they saw her father risk his life during three days of intense battle near Bazoches, France, in 1918.

“Sgt. Shemin repeatedly, and at the most imminent risk of life and limb, exposed himself to the fire of the enemy to bring in from the open fields before our position, which was constantly swept by heavy fire, several wounded comrades,” the letter states.

Due to casualties, Shemin had to take command of his platoon, in which he distinguished himself for being “utterly fearless” and a “big factor in maintaining splendid morale and tactical efficiency,” according to the letter.

‘HORRENDOUS FIGHTING’

Born to Russian immigrants, Shemin grew up in Bayonne, N.J. He was a serious athlete who studied to be a forest ranger before enlisting in the Army in 1917 when he was 18.