A campaign to recognize a 101-year-old World War II hero with the Medal of Honor is now getting a push from key members of Texas’ congressional delegation as well as a growing group of North Texas civilians.

James Megellas of Colleyville is the most decorated officer in the history of the prestigious 82nd Airborne Division. During the war, Megellas was passed over for the Medal of Honor and given the Silver Star, despite the fact that his immediate commander put him in for the award.

Sen. John Cornyn has co-sponsored a bill authorizing President Donald Trump to award the Medal of Honor to Megellas for acts of valor on Jan. 28, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge. A similar bill has been introduced in the U.S. House by Wisconsin Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman. Similar bills have been introduced in previous sessions but died without a vote.

"If I get it, it'd be a nice thing, but it really doesn't change much," Megellas said in a Memorial Day story in The Dallas Morning News. He appreciates the eyewitness statements gathered for the campaign "from my buddies who were there with me. That means a lot to me."

Supporters are also hoping to introduce Megellas to President Trump, who is scheduled to visit Dallas for a fundraiser Thursday, said Meredith Walker, chief economist for EarthX and a member of the Board of Councilors for the EastWest Institute and the board of directors of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.

“We’re pushing forward,” Walker said.

The decision to award the Medal of Honor is made by the president but only after a long bureaucratic process that starts with a recommendation by the supervising officer of the potential recipient. The recommendation must be approved by the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Born on March 11, 1917, Megellas graduated from Ripon College near his Wisconsin hometown in May 1942, six months after the United States went to war. He immediately accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Army. He ended up as a paratrooper and platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division.

For his actions in battles from Italy to the liberation of Holland and the Battle of the Bulge, the paratrooper was awarded the military’s second-highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross, as well as two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.

In the winter of 1945, Megellas and the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment were part of the fight during the Battle of the Bulge. His platoon and another, both heavily depleted by casualties, were ordered to take Herresbach, a Belgian town 5 miles from the German border. Trudging through knee-deep snow in the Ardennes Forest, they surprised a much larger German force and routed them out without losing one of their own.

During the assault, Megellas sneaked up on a German Mark V tank that was firing at his men. He disabled the tank’s tracks with a hand grenade and then charged up the side of the Panther tank and dropped another grenade down its open turret.

At a reunion 54 years later, Megellas’ old commander, retired Col. Edward Sims, who had recommended Megellas receive the Medal of Honor, was stunned to learn that his submission had been downgraded to the Silver Star. When Sims further investigated, he found that the citation for the Silver Star did not mention anything about Megellas single-handedly taking out the tank.

Sims resubmitted the paperwork, with new, eyewitness accounts he acquired from those involved. But the Army denied the request in 2003.

After Sims' death in 2013, the appeals continued. An online petition was set up on the website, www.medalformaggie.com, for supporters to sign encouraging Congress to act.

In late November, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, sent letters to Secretary of the Army Mark Esper and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis requesting their attention to the case of awarding Megellas the Medal of Honor. Sessions attached a previous letter, written in 2016, that showed bipartisan support for Megellas’ case, with more than 20 U.S. representatives from both parties co-signing the letters.

The 2016 letter argued that the Army declined the upgrade of Megellas’ medal “without having interviewed Megellas, Sims or the eyewitnesses whose sworn statements had been prepared.”

Megellas did receive congressional recognition in 2016. Cornyn and fellow Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) introduced a bill to rename a post office in Megellas’ hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisc., which became law.

In June of that year, Megellas traveled to Fond du Lac, where about 100 friends, family members and supporters came together for the ceremony renaming the city’s downtown post office after the World War II hero.