Medal of Honor Host City Program of Gainesville Texas

Scholarship prize to Lucas at Southern Miss

World War II Medal of Honor Recipient Jack Lucas will be honored with a special academic award created to recognize the best paper written annually by a University of Southern Mississippi student on a topic in warfare history.

Lucas, a Hattiesburg resident who was the youngest Marine to ever recieve the Medal of Honor since the Civil War, died June 5 at age 80. He served on the advisory board for USM's Study of War and Society program, which examines the impact of war and its relationship to society.

Officials said the Jack Lucas Award will be presented annually to the writer of the best student paper on a war and society topic, and will include a $250 cash prize.

AF MOH of Vietnam War under consideration

House Bill 766 bill requesting a waiver the time limitations specified by law in order to allow the Medal of Honor to be posthumously awarded to Chief Master Seg. Richard L. Etchberger has been approved and appears to be likely to pass the Senate as well.  

The military chain of command would then remain for the award to Etchbergeer, a top Air Force enlisted man killed in action during a secret mission during the Vietnam War.

The action would upgrade CMSgt. Etchberger's Air Force Cross awarded in 1969. See citation here.

His will be the 14th awarded to the Air Force for the Vietnam.

For complete story click here.

2008 Medal of Honor Host City Weekend

Click here for first story about this year's MOH Weekend.

Second SEAL to Receive Nation's Highest Award

SAN DIEGO — A US Navy SEAL who "never took his eyes off the enemy grenade" which he smothered to save his comrades in Iraq will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, a Defense Department official has confirmed.

Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, left, of Garden Grove, Calif., was holed up on the roof of a Ramadi house with three other SEALs on Sept. 29, 2006, when an insurgent grenade landed nearby.

Monsoor, a 25-year old with SEAL Team 3, grabbed the grenade and clutched it to his chest. The blast killed him, but his actions, officials said at the time, saved the men on the rooftop.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."

Monsoor will be the second member of the Navy to receive the Medal of Honor since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, and the first sailor to receive it for combat in Iraq. He had previously been awarded the Silver Star--the nation's third-highest combat award.

Recent reports indicate that Monsoor’s family would receive the posthumous award on the fallen SEAL’s behalf during a White House ceremony April 8.

A Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the award had been approved.

Hayashi succumbs; 105 remain

Shizuya Hayashi, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2000 for valiant WWII service in company A, 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, will be laid to rest next Sunday.

Hayashi is show right at the 2007 Congressional Medal of Honor Society annual reunion in Green Bay.

Hayashi, 90, could easily recall that Italian battlefield on Nov. 29, 1943. "There were mines all around. I remember a sniper bullet passing by my neck. ... A lot of boys got hit in that minefield."

Hayashi, then 26, charged a German machine-gun nest, killing nearly 20 enemy soldiers and taking four prisoner.

The Pearl City Hawaii veteran died after a battle with cancer.

Navy Hero McCool Passes Away; 106

Funeral services are pending in Washington state for former Norman resident Richard M. McCool Jr., a former Navy lieutenant who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1945.

McCool, 86, died March 5 in Bremerton, Wash.

After graduating from the US Naval Academy, he was placed in charge of the Navy transport ship USS Landing Craft Support 122.

The ship — similar in looks to a landing craft which brought soldiers ashore, but heavily armed with machine guns and rockets — was used to protect Naval destroyers.

On June 10, 1944, McCool’s ship was attacked while in Okinawa.

According to the book “Medal of Honor, Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty,” McCool rescued 99 crew members of the USS William D. Porter after the Porter was attacked by a Japanese Kamikaze.

The next day, Kamikaze planes attacked McCool’s ship.

McCool’s crew blew one Kamikaze out of the sky and gunners hit a second, but that plane crashed into the 122, about 8 feet below the conning tower.

First MOH to Sioux Nation

WASHINGTON - Almost six decades after his gallant actions and 26 years after his death, two-war veteran Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble will be the first full-blooded Sioux Indian to receive the Medal of Honor.

The White House announced this morning that Keeble will receive the nation's highest award for valor posthumously in a ceremony scheduled for 2:30 p.m. March 3. Details.

Keeble, a platoon leader in G Co., 19th Infantry Regt., 24th Infantry Div., is cited for single-handedly assaulted several enemy positions in rugged hilly terrain which had pinned down advancing US troops. Attacking with hand grenades and his rifle, MSgt. Keeble neutralized three, successive machine-gun emplacements which ended the defilade and resulted in securing the objective.

For his heroism during the final allied offensive of the Korean War, Keeble was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

According to affidavits filed by men in in Keeble’s company, he was twice recommended for the Medal of Honor in 1951, but both recommendations were lost. The legislative action necessary to upgrade Keeble's DSC to the nation's highest award for valor was sponsored by South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson.  Background

Keeble, who also served in WWII, will be the first member of the Sioux Nation to receive The Medal. His other military awards include the Silver Star, Bronze Star with "V", and four Purple Hearts.

Keeble died in 1982 at the age of 65.

Medal of Honor Weekend April 2-6

GAINESVILLE – Two Medal of Honor Recipients from the 1965 Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, Bruce Crandall and Joe Marm, are the special guests for this year's Medal of Honor Host City Program gathering here, April 3-5.

w

Tickets go on sale Friday for the Medal of Honor Weekend Banquet, set for Saturday, April 5, at the Gainesville Civic Center, 311 S. Weaver St. According to Lynette Pettigrew, social hour begins at  6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets must be purchased in advance at the Civic Center, or by contacting her at 940-668-4530 or Lpettigrew@cogtx.org.

w

Guest host for the evening is long-time Fox News commenter John Gibson and the guest speaker is Joe Galloway, veteran war correspondent and co-author of the definitive best seller, "We Were Soldiers Once... And Young."

w

"We will probably welcome 15 Recipients this year which may bring the total number who have visited Gainesville to 22," said Mike McHorse, Host City Program President.

w

Thus far, possible first time Recipient visitors include Marines John McGinty and Richard Pittman, and Army Recipient and aviator Fred Ferguson. 

w

Joining Marm and Crandall will be fellow Vietnam Medal of Honor Recipients Drew Dix, Doc Ballard, Clarence Sasser, Bob O’Malley, and David McNerney, James Taylor and Korean War Recipient James Stone—frequent Gainesville visitors for several years.

w

Scheduled events include a parade featuring law enforcement patrols cars from North Texas and Southern Oklahoma, antique Rolls Royces and Bentleys, WWII and Vietnam era military vehicles, the Ft. Sill Army Band, a Texas A&M Cadet Honor Guard, and a fly-over by military warbirds.

w

"Our goal is to recognize our nation’s military and veterans by giving our citizens as chance to meet and talk to—especially our young people—those who have an inspiring message of service, duty and patriotism," said McHorse.

The annual event has attracted 20 Recipients since it began in 2001, and in the name of each one, an oak tree has been planted along the community's walking trail.

w

Pivotal Battle

w

The three-day battle in the Ia Drang Valley produced heavy casualties and numerous top decorations. IN addition to Marm and Crandall, a third Medal of Honor was earned by Ed "Too Tall to Fly" Freeman", who flew a Huey helicopter as Maj. Crandall's wingman. The pilots combined to re-supply the surrounded Americans with ammunition, water and food, while evacuating the critically wounded.

w

Lieutenant Marm, a young platoon leader, received his Medal of Honor in his first few hours of ground combat, while paperwork problems and the massive build up of the war resulted in Freeman's being awarded in 2001 and Crandall's only last year.

w

Ia Drang -- the first major battle in the early days of the Vietnam War pitted 450 US soldiers against 2,000 North Vietnamese and has inspired several books and a movie. Then United Press International combat correspondent Joe Galloway and Lt.Gen. Hal Moore who commanded a battalion of the 7^th Air Cav at LZ Xray collaborated on “We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” on which the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers Once" was based.

w

Their second collaboration, "We Are Soldiers Still", will be published in August.

w

In 1998 Galloway, although a civilian, was decorated with Bronze Star Medal w/V Device for Valor for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire at LZ Xray. His is the only medal of valor the U.S. Army awarded to a civilian for actions during the Vietnam War. 

w

The all-volunteer, non-profit Medal of Honor Host City organization limits public activities to four or five events over three days, so that the Recipients and their guests can relax and visit with one another in an environment of small town America. However, the primary emphasis is to bring those who have received the nation's highest honor together with local citizens and especially students. 

w

Copies of “We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” as well as “Medal of Honor”, a book of Recipient portraits, will be available for purchase at the community autograph session scheduled for Saturday, April 4.

w

The Medal of Honor Program is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and is funded entirely by local donations.

   

2008 SCHEDULE FOR MEDAL OF HONOR WEEKEND

Thursday, April 3, 2008

County School Children meet Medal of Honor Recipients
First State Bank Center for the Performing Arts
By Reservation Only for Schools
9:00 a.m.-9:45 a.m.
10:00 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Open to the Public
Contact: Catherine Lloyd at 940-665-5481

DeBlanc Medal donated

A special display case is being readied at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans to receive a number of recently-donated items.

Most curious is a rough-hewn fishing spear, obviously primitive.

For more than six decades retired Marine Col. Jeff DeBlanc, famed Medal of Honor fighter pilot, kept the spear in his office.

DeBlanc was one of only two surviving WWII Marine Medal of Honor aviators until his death in November left only Col. Jim Swett.

The Louisiana native directed that his medal and other personal belongings be donated to the museum. A family member is shown above with museum staff, cataloging the Deblanc gift.   

Thursday marks the 65th year of DeBlanc heroic action over the Solomon Islands while flying escourt for a bombing mission. Defending the bombers against attacking Japanese fighters, DeBlanc shot down five, becoming an ace in a single action; fact, the entire action lasted only five minutes.

His F-4 Wildcat mortally damaged, and seriously wounded in the last wheeling dogfight, DeBlanc bailed out at minimum altitude.

Despite his serious injuries he swam six hours toward the nearest land, and escaped and evaded enemy capture for three days. He was eventually taken captive by natives who bartered him for a sack of rice to another tribe that hid him and cared for his wounds.

The tribe carried DeBlanc by outrigger canoe to the home of a friendly missionary, who forwarded him to to Australian coast-watchers; he was finally returned to American command when picked up by a Navy PBY patrol plane.

He carried with him the fishing spear which he'd picked up from one of local tribal chiefs. Later he would explain: "We had been given an intelligence briefing on what to do in a situation like this. We were told not to show fear or we would be killed. We were also told that if they take something from you, take something from them.

"When the chief grabbed my Marine Corps belt buckle, I reached up and grabbed his spear."

Of the donation, the museum curator said, "We are undergoing an expansion project that will give us four times the exhibit space we have now. If the family had come to us the day before the grand opening of that expansion, we would still have found a spot for it."

 

Mrs. Gino Merli passes

Mary Merli

Mary Merli, widow of Medal of Honor Recipient Gino Merli, was laid to rest Monday morning in Lackawanna County Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gino Merli, her son, thanked the VFW for its participation in the ceremony.

"I think it's a real honor that they've now come and paid their respects to my mom and give her the honor and respect that she always gave to the veterans," said Dr. Merli. He called the VFW honor guard a "wonderful thing."

Mrs. Merli was active the VFW post, the American Legion and her church. "She was just an outstanding lady and an outstanding mother," her son recalled. Gino Merli passed away in 2002.

Mary Merli was 81 years old.

"Medal Of Honor Hero Returns To School---Pfc. Gino Merli, 21, Peckville, Pa., holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor, returned to Blakely High School, Peckville, to complete his senior year while undergoing periodical treatment at England General Hospital, Atlantic City. He is shown at his desk, trying to concentrate on the history he has been making, as starry-eyed lassies gaze in admiration-thoughts of lessons far, far away. It was difficult day for the war hero as well as the girls. (September 9, 1945 )"

CItation: Pfc. Geno Merli.