Center For American Values....Pueblo, Colorado

DATE:  April 2, 2016                                         

SITE:  Center For American Values

LOCATION:  101 S. Main Street, Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

“What extraordinary things ordinary people can do when they place service above self”

Set along the very pretty Pueblo Riverwalk was this interesting place. 

Now, now…don’t get all weirded out by the name of this place. This isn’t some ultra-conservative think tank or hideout or anything like that.

It is simply a place where Medal of Honor recipients are, well, honored. They seek to not only honor the recipients but to also educate all visitors about these amazing men. 

When you first walk in, you’ll notice that the walls are covered with pictures. Then you find out that each of those pictures represent a person who made extreme sacrifices to uphold the idea of freedom. 

So why is this in Pueblo, Colorado? Because they are known as the “City of Heroes”. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, upon awarding one recipient, stated “What is it in the water out there in Pueblo. All you guys turn out to be heroes”. 

They have portraits of 150+ recipients; each with a personal quote. Now this quote is totally up to the person, but can relate to the reason the medal was given, or values the person holds, or messages to the future. 

One thing I found fascinating…I’m sure every photographer struggles with choosing just the right picture and trying to get the person photographed to agree. This photographer, however, would choose his 3 best pictures and then let the person choose the one they wanted…How the person chose to be represented…how that person wants ME to see them. 

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military honor awarded only to military personnel for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States”. 

There are 3 versions, Army, Air Force and Navy (Marines and Coast Guard are awarded the Naval medal).

The medal was established in 1861 for the Navy and 1862 for the Army.

In total, there have been 3,514 medals given to 3,495 persons since 1862. Why the difference? Because 19 people have been recognized twice! The nation’s highest honor and they received two.

Think about it, since 1862, there have been millions and millions of people who have served in our military, and in the 150 since the Medal of Honors existence, only 3,495 people have received it.

And because the Medal of Honor was the ONLY award available, just less than ½ of those medals were awarded for service during the 4 years of the Civil War.

There was some disagreement over whether the medals should be given at all. It was a very European tradition and it was early enough in our history that we were still trying to shed any vestiges of appearing to be European.

The tradition is for the President to present the award but the first 6 medals were presented by the Secretary of War to six Union Army volunteers on March 25, 1863. The men had hijacked a Confederate train. Unfortunately the leader, a civilian, was ineligible to receive a medal.

As the medal is only for military personnel, there are two ways a recipient can be nominated…one, by the approval of their military chain of command and the other by a member of Congress, normally on behalf of a constituent.

In 1917, after concern was expressed that there were honorees who had received medals for reasons other than distinguished service, a review board looked at and removed 911 medals from the honor roll. These included a group who simply reenlisted to guard the capital during the Civil War and 29 members of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral detail.

Since 1941, more than half the medals (61.5%) presented have been posthumously to the recipient’s family.

Finally, in 1963 there was clarification of the “acts” that must be performed in order to be nominated for the award

• While engaged in action against an enemy of the United States; or
• While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or 
• While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in with the United States is not a belligerent party

Just so you know, people are not just given the award and a nice “thanks” and then sent on their way. There are special privileges and courtesies that come along with it, such as…

• Receive a pension above and beyond military pensions
• Receives special entitlements in air transportation
• Eligibility for burial at Arlington National Cemetery
• Children are admitted to military academies regardless of nomination or quota’s
• Invited to all presidential inaugurations and inaugural balls

 

Those are by law, but in addition and I think this is really cool….members of the uniformed service are encouraged to render salutes to recipients as a matter of respect and courtesy regardless of rank or status…in or out of uniform. This would be one of the very few instances where someone may receive a salute from someone of higher rank.

Interesting facts about some recipients…

• There are 19 people who received the award twice…14 for separate actions and 5 who received both the Army and Navy medal for the same action
• Since WWII, 851 medals have been awarded with 523 of those posthumously
• One has been awarded to a woman, Mary Edwards Walker. In fact, hers was taken away during the 1917 review and then restored in 1977
• President Lincoln met privately with the first six soldiers to win the Honor
• There has been only one Coast Guardsman to receive the medal
• 65 Canadians have received the honor while serving in the U.S. military, most in the Civil War
• The youngest recipient was an 11 year old drummer in the Civil War (the youngest in the 20^th century was a 17 year old who shielded his fellow squad members from grenades)
• The 4 Unknowns entombed at Arlington are recipients of the medal…the Vietnam remains were identified and the family asked for the Medal of Honor assigned to those remains. The request was denied saying the award was for ALL Vietnam unknowns, not specifically this one.
• There are 5 foreign unknowns who have been designated with the Honor..British, French, Romanian, Italian and Belgian.
• Although the law says there must be an act of valor, there have been exceptions…Charles Lindbergh and Major General Adolphus Greeley
• The last person to receive two medals was in 1918
• There have been father and son recipients… Arthur MacArthur Jr. & Douglas MacArthur and also Theodore Roosevelt & Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
• Theodore Roosevelt is the only president to have received the Medal of Honor
• Five pairs of brothers have received the medal

The nomination and awarding of the Medal of Honor has not always been inclusive. Although a review was done in 1917, no one looked at whether some were being excluded for the reason of race, religion or sex.

A 1993 study to ensure that prejudice or discrimination had not deterred the nomination of some, it was found there were no medals awarded to any soldier of African American descent who served in WWII. Ten people who had received the Distinguished Service Cross were instead awarded the Medal of Honor.

A similar study in 1998 looked into the nomination, or lack thereof, for Asian Americans. In this case, the panel found 22 instances where the Medal of Honor should have been given and they were in 2000.

In 2014, as part of a Congressional mandated review, an additional 24 medals were given to Hispanic, Jewish and African Americans.

 I read several things about how the law protects someone saying they received the award, the wearing of the medal, and even how it’s made. Special protections under U.S. law makes it illegal for any unauthorized adornment, sale or manufacture. Curiously, since a Supreme Court decision in the early 2000’s, said it is illegal to wear a medal you were not awarded BUT you can say you received one without actually having done so.

A politician in California…figures…declared he was the recipient of the Medal of Honor. When it was found that he hadn’t, he was sentenced to jail time. He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court who ruled that his First Amendment “free speech” rights had been violated and the sentence was struck down. You’re kidding…apparently lying about receiving the highest honor in the military is protected by the First Amendment. All I can do is shake my head in bewilderment.

Not everyone may agree that we should have fought the wars, or conflicts, that the U.S. have been involved with…but you have to agree that these men took up arms when asked to by their country. They left their families and normal life and fought for the idea of freedom. These men, whose pictures line these walls, are the heroes we should be looking up to.