This year marks the 10th anniversary of Gainesville's Medal of Honor Host City Program and will see the largest number of attendees--15--since its inception, according to the organization's founder, Don Pettigrew.
"When we started this I believe there were 155 Medal of Honor Recipients, and now there are 91, and several with health issues," Pettigrew said, noting that the average Recipient is 741/2 years old.
"With this year's event, we will have been very fortunate to have 33 individual Recipients visit our community, considering that the chances of meeting just one of these men in your life time is very slim, let alone more than a dozen at one time," he said.
Accordingly, the number of living Recipients reflect the passage of time with 58 from the Vietnam War; 20 from World War II, and just 13 from the Korean War. None of the six Iraq/Afghanistan War Recipients have survived to wear their Medal of Honor.
Pettigrew said that the program has remained strong and has grown because a number of Recipients have returned multiple times over the years and they occupy as special place in the hearts of the community; "we refer to them as 'our' recipients", he said.
Among the first time Recipient visitors are:
"Barney" Barnum—US Marine Corps/Vietnam
Then 1stLt Barnum was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions Dec. 18, 1965, while serving as an artillery forward observer and fire-direction officer in South Vietnam during Operation Harvest Moon.
Barnum's company of about 110 men was cut off from the rest of the American force; the company commander was down, his radioman alongside him. Barnum rushed to help them, but the radio operator was mortally wounded, and the captain died in Barnum's arms.
Outnumbered by an estimated 12:1 ratio, cut off from the rest of the battalion and night beginning to fall, Barnum learned that it would be impossible form other units to break through and reinforce his Marines.
Knowing it was impossible to hold on through the night Barnum ordered his remaining battle effective men to head for the battalion position in five-man, fire team rushes.
Taking the enemy by surprise with the audacious move, Barnum's men were able to break through NVA lines, and cross several hundred yards of fire-swept terrain to join up with the battalion before nightfall.
Colonel Barnum retired from the Marine Corps after 27 years, and later served as the Principal Director, Drug Enforcement Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs, and is a past president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Patrick Henry Brady
Near Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, 1968; then Maj. Patrick H. Brady flew his "Huey" helicopter through heavy fog and smoke and hovered slowly along a valley trail, turning his ship sideways to blow away the fog with the backwash from his rotor blades. The lives of many American and South Vietnamese lives depended 
on his flying skills.
Despite heavy, close-range enemy fire, he found the dangerously small site where two badly wounded ARVN soldiers awaited and evacuated them. He was almost immediately called to another fog-enshrouded area where American casualties lay within 50 of the enemy.
On a third mission Brady again landed at a site surrounded by the enemy. Although his aircraft had been badly damaged and his controls partially shot away during his initial entry into this area, he returned minutes later and rescued the remaining injured.
After obtaining a more air-worthy chopper, Maj. Brady managed to fly six severely injured patients to medical aid. During the day Maj. Brady and his crew evacuated 51 seriously wounded men, many of whom would have perished without prompt medical treatment, flying three separate medevac choppers that sustained an astounding 400 bullet holes.
During his two tours in Vietnam Brady flew over 2,000 combat missions and evacuated more than 5,000 wounded. He retired at the rank of major general in 1993 after 34 years of service.
Duane Dewey—US Marine Corps/Korea
Just 19, Marine Cpl. Duane Dewey was assigned to the 1st Marine Division, in the spring of 1952 as a machine-gun squad leader when his position it was overrun by a battalion-size Chinese communist force.
American outpost was quickly overrun.
Early in the second firefight, Dewey was low on ammo for his gun, so he ran to find more. As he returned to his team, an enemy grenade exploded, knocking him down; seriously wounded, he was trying to return to action when a corpsman began treating his wounds. A second grenade landed beside them.
Unhesitatingly, Dewey grabbed it and pulled it underneath him, while pushing the medic down with his other hand and yelling, “Hit the dirt, Doc.” The grenade detonated, blowing Dewey several inches off the ground and tearing into his hip. The medic was unharmed.
After being evacuated Dewey learned that in addition to the gaping shrapnel wounds throughout the lower part of his body, he had also been shot in the stomach. Hospitalized for a month in Japan, he was later flown stateside where he would spend three more months convalescing.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor on March 12, 1953 by President Dwight Eisenhower who said, “You must have a body of steel,” after reviewing his citation.
Harold Fritz—US Army/Vietnam
In what was supposed to be a routine, convoy escort assignment for his armored cavalry unit in January 1967, then Lt. Fritz was leading his unit in column near Quan Loi Fritz was suddenly blown out of his armored vehicle by a huge explosion. Climbing back onto his burning vehicle, he saw that the column had 
been ambushed by a large NVA force in defensive positions on both sides of the road.
Seeing 20 NVA troops from one side of the road assaulted his force, Fritz jumped into an armored vehicle and took a heavy toll on the attackers with its M-60 machine gun.
When a similar enemy force attacked from the other side, Fritz, fighting with a pistol and a bayonet, led his tiny force in a point-blank charge that temporarily drove the enemy back. He was hit several times by shrapnel and small-arms rounds; one particularly heavy blow on the left side of his chest knocked him down.
Ultimately, only five men in the unit were still able to fight. As he readied his men for a last stand to protect their wounded, he saw the aerial of a U.S. tank coming down the road. It was part of a tank platoon that had overheard Fritz’s call for help.
Reinforcements arrived in time to save Fritz' group.
After 27 years, Fritz retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel, and later worked for the Veterans Administration.
Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura—US Army/Korea
In the bitter cold of Korea near Taejon-ni, April 1951, Cpl. Miyamura and his infantry unit occupied a nighttime defensive position when communist troops fanatically attacked, and threatened to overrun the Americans.
Miyamura, a machine-gun squad leader, aware of an enemy probe in his sector, ran from his position with fixed bayonet to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat killing approximately 10 of the enemy. As the next suicidal charge hit the line, he delivered withering machine gun fire into the massed attack until his ammunition was expended.
Ordering his squad to withdraw, he quickly remained to render the gun inoperative. His task accomplished, he fought through infiltrating enemy soldiers to a second gun emplacement and assisted in returning fire. On the verge of annihilation, the company was ordered to withdraw; Cpl. Miyamura ordered his men to fall back while he covered their movement.
In the ensuing one-man fight, he killed more than 50 of the enemy, fighting until his ammunition was depleted and he was severely wounded. He maintained his magnificent stand despite his painful wounds, continuing to repel the attack until his position was overrun. When last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers.
Captured by the North Koreans, and held for more than two years until his release in August, 1953, Miyamura's was the first Medal of Honor classified top secret because had his heroic actions been known, he would have been singled out for torture and death.
Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, U.S. Army, a native son of Iowa, was awarded the Medal of Honor 6 Nov. for his courageous actions during 2007 combat operations against the enemy in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. Staff Sergeant Giunta's wife, Jennifer, and his parents, Steven and Rosemary Giunta were present when the young soldier received the nation;'s highest award for valor in a White House ceremony.
comrade back to cover. Later, while engaging the enemy and attempting to link up with the rest of his squad, Specialist Giunta noticed two insurgents carrying away a fellow soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other, and provided medical aid to his wounded comrade while the rest of his squad caught up and provided security. His courage and leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon's ability to defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American paratrooper from enemy hands.
The new vessel was named after a Marine and posthumous Medal of Honor Recipient who sacrificed his life during combat in Iraq so his comrades could live. 
His additional personal decorations include the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart; he will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Details are pending.
