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CAMPBELL HALL — When Sean Harrington drives around Orange County, he scans the roadsides looking for wires, overturned dirt, suspicious-looking rocks or any other evidence he's about to be attacked. He can't help it. Harrington, 24, did two tours in Iraq, leading patrols both in Kirkuk and in the south. His squad's job was to protect Iraqi truck drivers transporting goods from the port city of Umm Qsar to the interior. "My unit was hit 21 times," he said at his home in Campbell Hall, where he's enjoying a week's leave from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. "It seemed...

An elected official charged with falsely claiming he earned the military's highest honor has filed a motion to dismiss the federal case against him on free speech grounds. The motion argues that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, under which water board member Xavier Alvarez was charged, is incompatible with the First Amendment because it restricts free speech by criminalizing false claims of military honors. Alvarez, an elected representative to the Three Valleys Municipal Water District, said last year at a water district meeting that he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his deeds as a Marine. After...

A gold and enamel medal that once belonged to the American Revolutionary hero the Marquis de Lafayette goes on auction here Tuesday, and could fetch as much as 10 million dollars, experts said. The medal being sold by Lafayette's descendants was given to the Frenchman in 1824 by relatives of America's first US President George Washington, when Lafayette was 67 years old. The gift was made a quarter-century after the death in 1799 of Washington, who as a general led US troops to victory in their battle for independence against Britain. -snip-

On a spring day in Basra in 2004, nine men from the Royal Horse Artillery found themselves surrounded by 200 Iraqis, all shooting to kill. The man who saved them is Sgt Terry Bryan, a modest 37-year-old father of three, who joined the Army at 16. Here, in our first extract from a new book in which medal-winning soldiers tell their stories, he describes how he won the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his astonishing bravery....

The ultimate tribute: Iraq-hero Hall nominated for George Cross medalBy JONATHAN POWELL - More by this author » Last updated at 22:53pm on 13th October 2007  A British security guard who died as he saved the lives of four colleagues in Iraq is to be recommended for Britain's highest civilian honour, the George Cross. Simon Hall and his companions were unarmed when they were overpowered by gunmen near the Kuwait border, bundled into a pick-up truck and taken on a terrifying journey to almost certain death. But the captives launched a daring escape attempt, with Simon heroically grabbing hold...

PEARLAND — This time, Nyles Reed didn't have to pay for his Purple Heart medal. Monday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn awarded him the medal, saying it is "embarrassing" Reed was ever told he'd have to pay $42 to get his own. The 75-year-old retired salesman got a standing ovation at a packed luncheon of the Pearland and Alvin Chambers of Commerce. Navy officials notified him a couple of weeks ago that he had qualified for the medal 55 years ago as a Marine sergeant in Korea. The medals were out of stock, officials told him in a letter. He got...

WASHINGTON (AFRNS) -- Before a U.S. aircraft broke the sound barrier, the Tuskegee Airmen overcame a daunting social hurdle: breaking the Air Force's color barrier. In the Capitol Rotunda here March 29, President Bush and Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee Airmen, more than 60 years after the 332nd Fighter Group's World War II achievements that were made bittersweet by the racial discrimination they endured after returning home. "I thank you for the honor you have brought to our country, and the medal you are about to receive means that our country honors you," President Bush said...

From just a little earlier today at the White House: THE PRESIDENT: Welcome. I am pleased that you all are here on a very special day. Presenting the Medal of Honor is one of the great privileges for the President. The medal is the highest military decoration a President can confer. This medal is awarded for actions above and beyond the call of duty... If Major Crandall had stopped here he would have been a hero. But he didn't stop. He flew back into X-Ray again and again. Fourteen times he flew into what they called the Valley of Death....

LEXINGTON, Ky., Feb. 21, 2007 – A Kentucky Army National Guardsman has become the first Guard soldier -- and only the fifth servicemember overall -- to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. Kentucky Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, left, remains at attention after receiving the Distinguished Service Cross from Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, in Lexington, Ky., Feb. 17. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Soucy, USA  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Distinguished Service Cross is second only to the Medal of Honor among awards for valor in battle. Staff...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2007 – More than 40 years after demonstrating the heroism immortalized in the bestselling book and movie, “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” retired Army Lt. Col. Bruce P. Crandall will receive the Medal of Honor, the White House announced yesterday. Crandall will receive the nation’s highest military award for actions during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in November 1965. The battle, at Landing Zone X-Ray near the Ia Drang River, was the first major ground battle of the war. During the incident, Crandall, then a major and commander of Company A,...

. Download HiRes1/26/2007 - WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) -- Since the Air Force started manning convoy operations in support of the war on terror, more Airmen have had an opportunity to put their rifle training to use in real-world scenarios. Today, explosive ordnance disposal and security forces Airmen, along with those performing in-lieu-of taskings, have joined battlefield Airmen working "outside the wire" in Iraq and Afghanistan and are regularly involved in combat situations as part of their duty...all alongside their fellow Airmen that continue to engage in daily combat, delivering decisive effects from the air! "We are a warfighting Air Force," said Chief of Staff...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2007 – Thanks to the efforts of Silver Star Families of America, Indiana and New Mexico have proclaimed May 1 as “Silver Star Day” to honor the nation’s wounded servicemembers. Silver Star Families of America is a member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program highlighting the ways Americans are supporting the nation’s servicemembers. “What we really want to do is have a nationwide event that day,” Janie Orman, the group’s vice president, said. She added that the proclamation had been sent to every state. The group, which would like to establish May 1 as...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2007 – The second servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in the Iraq war was inducted into the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes today. Officials inducted U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Jason Dunham into the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes as a Medal of Honor recipient, Jan. 12, 2007. Dunham received the medal posthumously for his heroic actions in Iraq. Defense Dept. photo by William D. Moss  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham’s name was added to the more than 3,000 engraved on the wall in the Defense Department’s shrine to those...

FORT RILEY, Kan. -- Spc. Ronnie Wheat wears a Combat Action Badge, proof he survived a life-threatening encounter while deployed in Iraq. Now he wears a Soldier's Medal, proof the 70th Engineer Battalion Soldier helped save two civilians from a life-threatening accident on a highway between Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Col. Norbert Jocz, 3rd Brigade commander, presented the medal Nov. 17 in front of a battalion formation on the Kodiak Parade Field on Custer Hill. “It's pretty neat,” the Oklahoma native said about getting the medal. “I never expected to get anything like this.” The...

Army bestows prestigious heroism laurel on soldier who assisted rescue of 3 in tank There's a humming noise a cable makes when it is about to snap. On an awful morning in Iraq, the sound echoed in Kraig Lemme's head. When he heard it, the 24-year-old Tucson soldier was chest-deep in filthy water, standing atop an Abrams tank that had flipped into a canal with three crew members inside. On shore, another Abrams hooked to one end of the cable was straining to lift the disabled tank's hatch above water so Lemme could get at the trapped trio. "Everybody stood...

HOLIDAY, Fla.(Army News Service, Aug. 29, 2006) – What began last year as a suggestion by retired Maj. Gen. Fred Raymond came full circle last Friday during a dedication ceremony of the new Paul R. Smith Middle School in Holiday, Fla. More than 500 family, friends, Soldiers, veterans, legislators, county officials and students were present. Raymond recommended to the Pasco County School Board in September 2005 that the new school be named after Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant 1st Class Paul R. Smith. Smith’s parents, widow and two children live in Holiday, and his 12-year old son David is now...

Grigory Perelman a no-show for his Fields Medal.Four mathematicians were today due to collect gold medals and glory in Madrid, Spain, having been declared winners of the 2006 Fields Medals — referred to as the 'Nobel prizes' of mathematics. But only three turned up. Grigory Perelman, a reclusive Russian mathematician who was widely expected to be one of this year's winners (see 'Maths 'Nobel' rumoured for Russian recluse'), was indeed honoured at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians. But after a round of applause, president of the International Mathematical Union John Ball said "I regret that Dr...

MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON, D.C., August 4, 2006 – Twenty-six Marine heroes were honored at a Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony here yesterday. A crowd of more than 1,000 friends, family members and patriotic spectators watched as Marine Commandant Gen. Michael W. Hagee and Sgt. Maj. John L. Estrada, sergeant major of the Marine Corps, presented flags to 16 Medal of Honor recipients and family members of 10 other Medal of Honor recipients. "On behalf of all Marines, thank you for your service and example for the thousands of Marines that followed you," Hagee told the recipients. "Your legacy is...

"I honestly don’t remember ever being afraid,” Command Sergeant Major Gary L. Littrell (U.S. Army, ret.) says, recalling a fierce four-day, four-night battle he led against a numerically superior enemy force that had surrounded his battalion and was hell-bent on destroying it. “I just remember being very, very angry, because all of sudden — from the first mortar round that killed one of my best friends and seriously wounded several others — there was this nonstop fighting that lasted for days where the enemy was killing my soldiers. The effect it had on me was extreme anger.”

Local Marine To Return Service Medal To Bush In Protest3/25 Marine Calls War On Terrorism Medal 'Eye Candy' From Bush  POSTED: 12:41 pm EDT July 3, 2006 UPDATED: 1:08 pm EDT July 3, 2006 AKRON, Ohio -- A local Marine who service in Iraq earned several medals for serving his country, but he's giving back one of the medals to the White House as a form of protest. Sgt. Matthew Bee is a decorated Akron Marine who spent seven months in Hadeetha, serving with the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines Weapons Company based in Brook Park. Bee received six medals of...