MOH

The National Review Online recounts an interesting connection of film with history in a tribute to this National Medal of Honor Day.

The purpose of the holiday is to recognize the heroism of the more than 3,400 recipients, educate the public on the medal and what it means, and to celebrate and honor the more than 100 living recipients of the medal.

Congress has finally given these heroes the recognition they are due.

Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives met Wednesday night with 31 recipients of the Medal of Honor. The gathering was part of an effort to acknowledge the nation’s greatest heroes and highlight this year’s first ever national “Medal of Honor Day” which is this Sunday, March 25.

“There are only 111 living recipients of the nation’s highest honor. Every state and community in which these men live should take time out this weekend to acknowledge their heroic actions,” said U.S. Senator Larry Craig. The Idaho Republican is an original co-sponsor of the legislation which established the creation of Medal of Honor Day.

The date was chosen because it was on March 25 in 1863 that the first Medals of Honor were presented to six Union soldiers.

The medal was originally authorized in 1861 for sailors and Marines, and the following year for Army soldiers as well. Since then, more than 3,400 Medals of Honor have been awarded to members of all services and the Coast Guard, as well as to a few civilians who distinguished themselves with valor.

Valor, courage, honor, duty, self-sacrifice….these may not be common characteristics today in a self-absorbed culture. But they are the charcteristics of all the uncommon heroes who have received the nations’s highest award. They, and their families, deserve our heartfelt gratitude. They’ve got mine.