20th Anniversary Women in Military Service for America Memorial

Female service members: 'We've touched every kind of service'
The Washington Post
By TARA BAHRAMPOUR
Published: October 21, 2017

ARLINGTON, Va. — Elvira Chiccarelli grew up during the Vietnam War and felt a call to serve her country. Her mother had been a cadet nurse in World War II, and in 1975 Chiccarelli, a dentist, joined the Air Force. But when she reported for duty, her commanding officer told her that he did not want women working there and assigned her to an auxiliary unit.

Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Rosemary Masters, left, listens to one of the speakers.

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST

On Saturday, watching the celebration for the 20th anniversary of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, the retired lieutenant colonel's eyes got misty.

"We've touched every kind of service - medical, dental, computers, flying," said Chiccarelli, 67, who had traveled from Panama City Beach, Florida, to attend with her daughter, who is in the Air Force and shares the same name. "Any place they needed people, women have stepped forward and demanded to give our talents to the country."

Women have been enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces since 1917, but it wasn't until 1997 that a memorial was erected for them. The arched semicircle and reflecting pool at the top of the road that leads to Arlington National Cemetery is still the only major national memorial honoring the 3 million women who have served.
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And they have also received every Military Award including the Medal of Honor

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
Mary Walker was born on November 26, 1832, in Oswego, New York. She graduated from Syracuse Medical College and, while serving as an assistant surgeon during the Civil War, was captured by the Confederate army. She was awarded a Medal of Honor for her service, and went on to lecture on women's rights, dress reform and suffrage. Walker died in Oswego in 1919.

Vietnam Veteran Combat Medic Finally Receives The Medal of Honor

No one seems willing to say why he had to wait all this time after it was approved by Congress
In 2016, Defense Secretary Ash Carter recommended McCloughan for the Medal of Honor. But since the medal must be awarded within five years of the recipient’s actions, Congress needed to pass a bill waiving the time limit. President Barack Obama signed the measure in late 2016, but he didn’t get the opportunity to recognize McCloughan with the medal before his term ended this year.

A soldier survived 48 hours of terror in Vietnam. Today, he received the Medal of Honor.
Washington Post
By Andrew deGrandpre
July 31, 2017

It is difficult to assess which of James McCloughan’s near-death encounters in Vietnam was the most harrowing. There were so many. From the moment his infantry unit hit the field March 9, 1969, they encountered a ferocious enemy determined to repulse the Americans at all costs.

“I got initiated the very first day,” McCloughan, 71, recalled in a recent interview with Army biographers. “We hit our first ambush. We had a man die. Had a few people to patch up. And I shot a man. That’s a lot to digest in your first day.

“But I didn’t know I was going to face anything like Tam Ky,” he added, alluding to the location of a vicious 48-hour battle, three months after he arrived in Vietnam, during which the 23-year-old combat medic risked his life at least nine times to save wounded or stranded comrades — 10 men in all — and prevented a much larger North Vietnamese force from overrunning them entirely.
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Combat Medic Vietnam Veteran Finally Receiving Medal of Honor

Vietnam veteran to receive Medal of Honor five decades later, after an act of Congress
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
June 13, 2017

He will receive the award on July 31, according to a White House press release.

This 1969 photo provided by James McCloughan shows him with the former Army medic, right, with a platoon interpreter in Nui Yon Hill in Vietnam. An Army spokeswoman said Tuesday, June 13, 2017, that McCloughan, who saved the lives of 10 soldiers during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in May 1969 in Vietnam, will become the first person to be awarded the nation's highest military honor by President Donald Trump.Photo Credit: Courtesy of James McCloughan via AP

Late last year, former Spc. Jim McCloughan was close enough to taste it. After then-President Obama signed a provision included in the annual defense authorization bill, McCloughan was cleared to receive the Medal of Honor.

But the White House was in the midst of a transition to the Trump administration, and so McCloughan's award fell by the wayside for several months, until it could be signed by the acting Army secretary and the new president.

McCloughan, 71, had been waiting for the call for six months, but the event was a decade in the making, since family started reaching out to his local Michigan lawmakers about putting McCloughan in for the Distinguished Service Cross, to recognize him for his bravery as a combat medic in Vietnam back in 1969.
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Driven by Love, Medal of Honor Day

On Medal of Honor Day, a nation's military heroes honor courageous civilians
STARS AND STRIPES
By MICHAEL S. DARNELL
Published: March 25, 2017

"And that's the bottom line behind all the actions on the battlefield – the mortal battlefield of combat and the other battlefields of life – [that] in my mind, in my heart, were driven by love."

Mike Fitzmaurice, left, and Will Swenson, center, both Medal of Honor recipients, lay a wreath with the help of a soldier with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard"at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, March 25, 2017.

MICHAEL S. DARNELL/STARS AND STRIPES

ARLINGTON, Va. – Always a select group, the number of living recipients of the nation’s highest military award for valor continues to dwindle. Many of the 75 living Medal of Honor recipients are Vietnam War veterans in their 70s and 80s. Traveling for them isn't as easy as it used to be, so it's a special event, indeed, that can bring so many of them together.

More than 20 of those honorees gathered Saturday in the shadow of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, where they watched two of their number — Mike Fitzmaurice and Will Swenson — lay a wreath at the base of that famous monument to soldierly sacrifice. They did so in commemoration of National Medal of Honor Day, a day set aside to celebrate heroism.

But to hear them tell it, the men gathered not to be honored, but to instead to pay their respects to men long since passed.

"Service has never been about camouflage and guns, it's been about giving of yourself to others selflessly," said Salvatore Giunta
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MOH for Chesty Puller?

Is it time to give Chesty Puller the Medal of Honor?
Marine Times
By: Jeff Schogol
February 19, 2017

More than 300 Marines have earned the Medal of Honor since award’s inception in 1861. But missing from that list is perhaps the most legendary Marine, whose memory still looms large in the lore of the Corps: Lt. Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller.

Lieutenant General Lewis "Chesty" Puller

The image of Puller’s iconic frown and his memorable quips about combat have come to define what it means to be a Marine for generations. Puller once told his troops, when surrounded by enemy fighters in Korea: “All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us ... they can’t get away this time.”

Puller earned five Navy crosses, the nation’s second-highest honor for valor. At least two serious attempts have been made to get one of Puller’s awards upgraded to the Medal of Honor, but they failed. Even today, Marine veterans and devotees still grumbled that Puller deserves to be recognized with the nation’s highest honor and the book has not been closed on the matter.

“Marines still today in boot camp chant his name. They all still do know about him and they should keep his spirit alive,” said Kim Van Note, president of the Basilone Memorial Foundation, a charity named for one Marine Medal of Honor recipient who served under ­Puller’s command at Guadalcanal, ­Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone.
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Florida Medal Of Honor Hero Charles Liteky Passed Away

Vietnam veteran Charles Liteky, who became a peace activist and famously gave up his Medal of Honor to protest US foreign policy in Central America, dies at age 85
By Associated Press and Jessica Chia For Dailymail.com
21 January 2017

Liteky grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was quarterback in high school
He went to seminary school and became a Roman Catholic priest
Liteky served in the Vietnam War, and rescued 20 wounded men in 1967 despite the fact that he had been hit with shrapnel in the neck and foot
One man was too heavy, so he rolled on his back, placed the man on his chest and crawled back to the landing zone using his elbows and heels
He volunteered for another tour in Vietnam, before renouncing faith
He met former Catholic nun and peace activist Judy Balch; they married in 1983
Liteky became an activist as well, and gave up his Medal of Honor in protest
He also went on a six-week hunger strike to protest US foreign policy in Central America, including the US-backed, right wing Nicaraguan contras
In 2003, he traveled to Baghdad with other peace protesters to bear witness to the war and work with children in an orphanage and at hospitals

Charlie Liteky, a Vietnam veteran who courageously rescued more than 20 wounded men only to give up his Medal of Honor in protest after he became a peace activist, has died at the age of 85.

Richard Olive, a longtime friend of Liteky's said he died on Friday night at the Veterans Administration Hospital in San Francisco, California.

Liteky was a quarterback in high school who became a Roman Catholic priest before two tours in Vietnam eventually led him to renounce his religion and protest for peace in places like El Salvador and Iraq.

Reflecting on his life in 2009, he told the Florida Times Union: 'I have tried to live life to the truth as I see it at the time. That's a very costly thing. I've lost a lot. I'm an ex-lot of things. But what have you got? Your integrity.'
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Vietnam Veteran MOH Sammy Davis Attending Inaugurations Since 1969

Meet the Army Veteran Who’s Never Missed an Inauguration Day Since Nixon
NBC News
by ERIK ORTIZ
January 18, 2017

It doesn't matter whether he voted for that person or not, Davis said, he goes to each ceremony out of a "sense of duty — an obligation I feel in my soul."

"I didn't die for my country," he said, "but I'm living for it."

On each Inauguration Day, decorated Vietnam veteran Sammy Lee Davis is furnished with a front-row seat to history.

Davis, a Medal of Honor recipient, has been an eyewitness to every American president taking the oath of office since Richard Nixon's first swearing-in on a cold January afternoon in 1969. Davis is returning to Washington this week and says he is eager to watch Donald Trump become the next president of the United States — marking his 14th ceremony he will get to experience first-hand.

"How unique it is to have that privilege," said Davis, 70, who calls everyone "sir" or "ma'am" and lives outside a tiny Indiana community called Freedom, where he keeps framed programs from each inauguration he's attended.

While a particular president might inspire a trek to the nation's capital for such a revered event — President Barack Obama's first inauguration in 2009 beckoned an estimated 1.8 million spectators — the desire to go is different for Davis.

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Vietnam Veteran's Medal of Honor Ceremony On Hold

Vietnam veteran's Medal of Honor on hold during presidential transition
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
January 15, 2017

Jim McCloughan is in line for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, for his actions as a medic during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in Vietnam.
Photo Credit: Courtesy photo via the Detroit Free Press

When President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act two days before Christmas, he also signed off on a provision buried down in the weeds to allow a Michigan man to receive the Medal of Honor five decades after the actions for which he earned it.

After years of wait-and-see and a push from his local congressional representatives, former Spc. Jim McCloughan, 70, was authorized to receive the military's highest award for his actions as a medic in Vietnam -- but now that the executive branch is knee-deep in a transition from the Obama to Trump administrations, the award is again on hold.

In May 1969, McCloughan was a 23-year-old private first class medic with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill, a gruesome two-day battle that left dozens killed, wounded or missing in action.

McCloughan survived with some grenade shrapnel and a bullet wound in his arm, but managed to save 10 people, he told the Detroit Free Press last year.

He also earned two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars with V device, the Vietnam Service Medal with three battle stars, and the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with palms and one oak leaf, among others, according to a December release from the office of Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who lead the charge to push through the award for McCloughan.
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Hacksaw Ridge Hero Desmond Doss Saved 75 Soldiers--Without A Gun

The Real 'Hacksaw Ridge' Soldier Saved 75 Souls Without Ever Carrying A Gun
WVPE
By ELIZABETH BLAIR
NOV 4, 2016

Doss saved 75 men — including his captain, Jack Glover — over a 12-hour period. The same soldiers who had shamed him now praised him. "He was one of the bravest persons alive," Glover says in the documentary. "And then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing."

Desmond Doss is credited with saving 75 soldiers during one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in the Pacific — and he did it without ever carrying a weapon. The battle at Hacksaw Ridge, on the island of Okinawa, was a close combat fight with heavy weaponry. Thousands of American and Japanese soldiers were killed, and the fact that Doss survived the battle and saved so many lives has confounded and awed those who know his story. Now, he's the subject of a new film directed by Mel Gibson called Hacksaw Ridge.

A quiet, skinny kid from Lynchburg, Va., Doss was a Seventh-day Adventist who wouldn't touch a weapon or work on the Sabbath. He enlisted in the Army as a combat medic because he believed in the cause, but had vowed not to kill. The Army wanted nothing to do with him. "He just didn't fit into the Army's model of what a good soldier would be," says Terry Benedict, who made a documentary about Doss called The Conscientious Objector.

The Army made Doss' life hell during training. "It started out as harassment and then it became abusive," Benedict says. He interviewed several World War II veterans who were in Doss' battalion. They considered him a pest, questioned his sincerity and threw shoes at him while he prayed. "They just saw him as a slacker," the filmmaker says, "someone who shouldn't have been allowed in the Army, and somebody who was their weakest link in the chain."
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Vietnam: Medal of Honor quest for Maj. George Quamo

A breakthrough in Medal of Honor quest for Maj. George Quamo
Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
By Paul Nelson
Published: August 29, 2016

ALBANY, N.Y. (Tribune News Service) — Friends and family of George Quamo hope two more testimonials — one from a former military medic and another penned by one of his fellow special service members — will bolster the case that the Green Beret from Averill Park deserves a Medal of Honor for his heroism during the Vietnam War.

Maj. George Quamo VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL FUND

Two notarized letters — from William Harris of North Carolina and Richard Mullowney Jr. of Alaska — bring to three the supporting documents that supporters will be submitting to the Defense Department requesting that Quamo be posthumously awarded the nation's highest military honor.

The Army Major who graduated from Averill Park High School in 1958 was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for leading a dangerous helicopter mission in 1968 that rescued 14 Green Berets and dozens of others who were invaded by two North Vietnamese battalions and were pleading for help at the Lang Vei Special Forces Camp in central Vietnam.

Quamo (pronounced Cuomo) died in a plane crash on April 14, 1968.
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Fallen Air Force Sgt. John Chapman Possible Medal of Honor

Air Force Seeks Medal Of Honor For CT Native Who Died In Afghanistan, NY Times Reports
Hartford Courant
Kristin Stoller
August 27, 2016

Valerie Chapman holds a photograph of her husband, Air Force

Tech Sgt. John Chapman. Chapman was killed on March 4, 2002

during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. (Tracy Wilcox / Hartford Courant)

The secretary of the Air Force is pushing to award a Medal of Honor to the first Connecticut native to die in the war in Afghanistan, based on new evidence 14 years after his death, the New York Times reported.

Sgt. John Chapman, 36, a standout athlete and 1983 graduate of Windsor Locks High School, was killed in combat after military action began in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He died on March 4, 2002, while attempting to retrieve the body of a Navy SEAL who had fallen from a helicopter during an attack by al Qaida and Taliban fighters, according to previous Courant reports.

But new evidence unearthed by the Air Force about Chapman's final hours suggests that a senior chief petty officer may have been incorrect when he declared Chapman dead during the attack, the New York Times reported.

Instead, the Air Force said, Chapman lived for an hour after his teammates had retreated, fighting enemy troops alone, according to the newspaper report. New technology used in an examination of videos from aircraft flying overhead indicate that Chapman killed two Al Qaida fighters before "dying in an attempt to protect arriving reinforcements," the newspaper reported.
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MOH: Marine Jumped on 2 Grenades But Only Received Navy Cross?

Medal of Honor being sought for Lebanon Marine
The Lebanon Reporter
By Rod Rose
Aug 20, 2016

“He jumped on a hand grenade: It turned out to be a dud,” Regan said. Soon a second grenade landed among the Marines. Bogan jumped on that grenade, which exploded beneath him.

Navy Cross Presentation: Marine Cpl. Richard E. Bogan (right) received the Navy Cross in a 1968 ceremony

Richard E. Bogan was a U.S. Marine Corps private first class, when he received the Navy Cross after jumping on a hand grenade in what was then the Republic of South Korea’s Thua Thien Province. The Navy Cross is the second-highest decoration for heroism awarded by the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps. It is presented only for extraordinary valor in combat.

Bogan, a 1967 graduate of Lebanon High School, was 41 when he died in a single-car crash in December 1990.

Now, Gerry Regan, a Marine who was there when Bogan jumped on that grenade, is working to have the Navy Cross award replaced — with the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.

Regan is recently retired, but has been active in Marine Corps organizations since he was discharged from the Corps following his service in Vietnam. He is a former president of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines branch of the 1st Marine Division Association.

Nikki Baldwin, Bogan’s daughter, met Regan in 2008 at a Marine Corps reunion, she said recently. She is appreciative of Regan’s efforts to earn the Medal for her father.

She provided The Lebanon Reporter a copy of a letter that could be critical evidence in Regan’s efforts, as well as other documents about her father’s service.
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Trump Loves War?

Back from being unplugged on mini vacation.  I spent the weekend in New England with family and it was wonderful.  

Back in the real world of politics more unusual than the pitiful garbage being slung on both sides, the only things I cannot hold back on are politicians claiming the trouble with the VA is someone else's fault and a candidate going after a grieving Gold Star Mom.

Donald Trump has a habit of using veterans. We're all used to that since most politicians do it. The thing that got me was when he said that he loves war yet got deferments to stay out of Vietnam. He didn't love it so much back then when his own life would be put in danger.  
It also seems that he cannot even let his pride go for a family who lost their son in combat while saving the lives of others.

Showing a characteristic refusal to back down from a fight, Trump took the almost unthinkable step of publicly escalating a feud with the parents of fallen US solider, Capt. Humayun Khan, who blasted Trump at last week's Democratic convention as unfit for the presidency.

Trump doesn't back down from a fight when it is about him but what kind of a message did this send to those putting their lives on the line everyday for the sake of others if he cannot even put his pride on the line? Yet he wants to be Commander-in-Chief or does he want to be dictator? 

The thing that keeps getting missed is that there we had a hero leader, loving his men so much he was prepared to do whatever he had to do so that they could survive. It didn't matter to him what faith they practiced because they had faith in him and each other.  It did not matter to him how they voted because they were putting each other first.

Too bad it didn't matter to Trump enough to let this Dad say what he wanted to say and let it go simply out of respect for the son who gave his life.  He could not even let this Mom's silence go without saying something about her.

How much do you want to bet that the story would have dropped off the news cycle in a day or so had he simply shown true leadership instead of hot headed ego?

The other thing is there seems to still be a line of politicians hoping folks forget they have been in charge of the way veterans have been treated all along and the mess is actually their fault because they didn't bother to fix any of it.

Read the history of the VA and see what I mean. 

(And on a side note, anyone screaming when this hero was talking is an idiot. We heard enough of that when Vietnam veterans came home. If you cannot at least respect someone like Groberg, who can you respect besides yourself?)





UPDATE

Churchill: Another Muslim soldier's father speaks out against Donald Trump

"Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims," said Khan, whose Army captain son, Humayun Khan, died when he ran to halt a vehicle carrying a suicide bomber, likely saving the lives of troops on guard duty he had told to take cover and those at a mess hall nearby.

Medal of Honor to Ret. Lt. Col. Charles Kettles Vietnam Veteran

Obama presents Vietnam veteran Charles Kettles with Medal of Honor
CBS News
Jul 18, 2016

WASHINGTON -- Nearly five decades after helping rescue dozens of American soldiers pinned down by enemy fire, a Vietnam War veteran is receiving the nation's highest military honor for valor.

President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to retired Lt. Col. Charles Kettles of Ypsilanti, Michigan during a ceremony Monday at the White House.

Kettles led helicopter flights carrying reinforcements to U.S. soldiers and evacuated the wounded after they were ambushed in combat operations near Duc Pho in May 1967.

Kettles repeatedly returned to a landing zone under heavy fire. He is credited with helping to save 40 soldiers and four members of his unit. During the final evacuation effort, he was advised that eight soldiers had been unable to reach the helicopters, so he returned without benefit of artillery or tactical aircraft support.
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President Obama Presents the Medal of Honor Published on Jul 18, 2016

In a ceremony at the White House, President Obama presents Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Charles Kettles, U.S. Army, the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry.

Green Beret Vietnam Veteran May Be Next MOH Recipient

Green Beret medic could be next Vietnam War MOH recipient
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: July 14, 2016

Gary Michael Rose receives the Distinguished Service Cross from Gen. Creighton Abrams, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, for heroism during Operation Tailwind.

COURTESY OF TED WICOREK

“God knows how many times he risked his life to make sure as many guys as possible came out alive,” Retired Maj. John Plaster.

WASHINGTON — The story of Green Beret Gary Michael Rose’s heroism is an epic of classified warfare and a stinging media scandal, but it might soon end with a Medal of Honor.

In 1970, Rose was the lone medic for a company of Special Forces soldiers and indigenous Vietnamese fighters during a risky, four-day assault deep into Laos. The badly injured Rose helped bring all the soldiers back alive and received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military honor, during a ceremony at the time in Vietnam.

“He is not a gung-ho person, he is very thoughtful, but he was a hell of a medic and I trusted him with my life,” said Keith Plancich, 66, who was a Special Forces squad leader on the mission.

But Rose and the other men were wrongly accused of taking part in war crimes in 1998 after the mission, called Operation Tailwind, was declassified and unearthed for the first time by CNN and its partner Time magazine.
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MOH Sammy Davis Returns From Vietnam

Veteran whose actions were adapted for ‘Forrest Gump’ returns to Vietnam
WTTV CBS News
By Russ McQuaid
JULY 4, 2016 

"I stood on the exact same piece of dirt that I earned this medal on.  I been waiting to go back for forty years." Sammy L. Davis

OWEN COUNTY, Ind.-- Truth be told, Sammy L. Davis doesn’t remember the last time he left Fire Support Base Cudgel west of Cai Lay in what was then called South Vietnam 48 years ago. Davis was choppered off the battlefield, severely wounded, after a night of war that saved the lives of three fellow Americans, held off an enemy onslaught and resulted in Davis being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

This Independence Day, the night of November 18, 1967, is once again fresh in Davis’ memory as the Mooresville native has just returned from his first visit back to the riverbank where Hoosier-bred heroics were displayed and lives were changed nearly a half century ago.

“I stood on the exact same piece of dirt that I earned this medal on,” said Davis as he held the honor that hung from a sky blue ribbon around his neck during a recent memorial service. “I been wanting to go back for forty years.

Davis was promoted to sergeant for what he did at Fire Support Base Cudgel. He also received the Medal of Honor, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.
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Return to Vietnam Healing Vietnam Veterans Souls

A healing journey
Salina Journal
By Tim Unruh
July 3, 2016

“For 48 years at night in my dreams, I see the eyes of my enemy,” said Sammy Davis, who received a Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam. “Now I still see eyes, but they’re the eyes of the gentlemen I broke bread with. They’re not mean eyes, but they’re friendly eyes, and they’re helping to sooth my soul.”

Emotions peaked leading up to the day two old soldiers returned to the scene of a horrific battle, this time with their wives.

But a calm settled over Salinans Jim and Rita Deister and Sammy and Dixie Davis, of Freedom, Ind., once they found the spot at Fire Base Cudgel in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, where Sammy had pulled a near-dead Jim to safety. Healing occurred where their blood had spilled nearly 49 years ago.

“I looked out to the east, over the rice paddies, and I could almost visualize the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong charging across them,” Jim Deister recalled. Because he is severely hearing impaired from his injuries, the interview was conducted by email. “That night in November (1967), they looked like an ant pile that had been disturbed. It almost sent shivers up my back.”

The U.S. Army veterans met face to face with some of their former North Vietnamese enemy and eventually bonded.

Old wounds did open, Sammy Davis said, “but I think they’ll heal instead of just scab over.” As a busy speaker who is on the road more than 200 days a year, who also counsels young war veterans, the experience with former foes was priceless.
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If you want to know about what Sammy went through, I interviewed him back in 2012.

At the Orlando Nam Knights fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor hero Sammy Davis talked to me about what it was like coming home after all he'd been through. It is a story few have heard before. As Sammy put it, it is one of the reasons no other veteran will ever come home treated like that again.

Sammy and Dixie also had a message for families living with PTSD.

Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.

MOH Florent Groberg Says He Just Did His Job

'Just a soldier doing my job,' says hero who tackled suicide bomber in Afghanistan
FoxNews.com
By Carole Glines
Published June 12, 2016

"In combat, there were definitely some tough parts … where you're under fire, when you realize, holy macaroni, there's a human being that's actually trying to kill me right now. But you have your men next to you, and you're all in sync working together."
Florent Groberg

Florent Groberg tackled a suicide bomber in Afghanistan and lived to tell about it. The Army captain received the Medal of Honor for his brave action, but he says he's "absolutely not" a hero.

"The word belongs to the people that don't come home,” he says. “I'm just a soldier doing my job."

Still, his heroic act in 2012 has become the stuff of legend.

Groberg, 33, was born in France to an American father and French mother of Algerian descent. He came to the U.S. in 1994 at the age of 11, learned English while growing up in Maryland and became determined to join the military after the September 11 terror attacks.

He became a U.S. citizen and entered basic training in 2008, and one year later he was in Afghanistan, leading a platoon that patrolled villages, fought the Taliban and supported the locals as they built their own government.

He said the war zone made him "a little overwhelmed and nervous at first, because … men could die on my watch.
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Soldier Saved Hundreds But Did Not Get Medal of Honor?

This Army hero took out suicide bombers and saved hundreds. Why no Medal of Honor?
Army Times
Kyle Jahner
June 3, 2016

“His efforts contained the enemy to the edge of the airfield, and saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers, coalition partners and civilians,” the narrative said.

Sgt. 1st Class Earl D. Plumlee, right, assigned to 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), is presented the Silver Star by Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, I Corps Deputy Commanding General. (Photo: Spc. Codie Mendenhall/Army)

With a new Army Secretary at the helm, Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has relaunched his campaign to award the Medal of Honor to a Special Forces soldier whose Afghanistan heroics were once considered for the top award but ultimately downgraded to a Silver Star.

On Aug. 28, 2013, then-Staff Sgt. Earl Plumlee helped to fend off an insurgent attack on Forward Operating Base Ghazni. Plumlee "aggressively advanced" and took out several insurgents, some wearing suicide vests. Plumlee, now a sergeant first class, is credited with saving hundreds of lives.

His nomination for the MoH was endorsed at the time by Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford and Army Gen. Mark Milley, but the Senior Army Decorations Board recommended a downgrade, and the decision was endorsed by then-Army Secretary John McHugh.

“(T)he Silver Star underrepresents SFC Plumlee’s actions," Hunter wrote in a letter to Army Secretary Eric Fanning. "You are in the position to make this right. The Army’s decision to downgrade SFC Plumlee’s nomination for the Medal of Honor is well known in the Special Operations Community — resubmitting his nomination will go a long way to restoring trust and morale among our warfighters at the leading edge of the fight.”
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Vietnam MOH Melvin Morris Talks About PTSD

Medal of Honor recipient Melvin Morris speaks of experience
The Ledger
James Bennett Jr.
May 29, 2016

“I had a difficult time after the war; very difficult," Morris said of the mental trauma he and other soldiers go through. "I struggled with it. Post-traumatic stress is no joke. I had a point where I didn't care about my family."

Retired Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama, speaks to the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Auburndale on Sunday morning. JAMES BENNETT JR./LEDGER CORRESPONDENT

AUBURNDALE — Melvin Morris still has the Green Beret he first wore officially during a ceremony with President John F. Kennedy.

“It looks rough, but I still wear it,” the Medal of Honor recipient said Sunday at the First Baptist Church of Auburndale.

The 74-year-old retired Army sergeant first class spoke to the congregation about war, his experiences in it, about its impact on those who serve and their families, and when war should be fought.

“There are people that don't like us,” the Vietnam veteran told the congregation on the day before Memorial Day. “They hate us, they hate our religion, they hate this church. They hate the people that go to it.

"I used to think that war was bad," he said. "It's bad if it's for no reason. But to protect our country, our family, our way of life, it may be necessary. There are those that will take us out of this world in a minute without a thought. And it's scary to me.”
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