As a little background, in the Army there is no official doctrine that Medal of Honor recipients are saluted first, but it is still universally done. Even a four star general will salute a MoH recipient first.
This being said, I knew an E-6 (staff sergeant) who had been a POW in Vietnam, as well as being pretty badly tortured in the process. He intended to remain in the Army at his rank until retirement, which was allowed because of his POW status. Otherwise, he was pretty stoical about it.
Until the day a MoH recipient payed a visit to his unit. The MoH recipient had done his homework, and made it a point to hunt up the POW.
When the two met, the MoH recipient made it a point to salute the POW first.
The POW later said that until that moment, “it had never really sunk in” what being a POW meant. He said that the next several days were emotionally overwhelming.
thank you for sharing that