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Sgt. Leonard B. Keller pulled out of the parking lot of a veterans’ association on Sunday in Milton (Fla.), taking a sharp left turn to hit the highway on his Harley. Something went wrong, and the motorcycle overturned. When Sgt. Keller, 62, died later that day, Florida’s loss spoke to the heart of a nation. Keller belonged to one of the most exclusive and distinguished groups in our country—he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Known colloquially as the Congressional Medal of Honor, the award is the highest military award for valor in combat. Sgt. Keller’s citation gives an idea...

TOPEKA, Kan. — A Kansas priest already under consideration for sainthood has won the endorsement of the Army's top civilian leader to receive the Medal of Honor.

You might think a posthumous Medal of Honor award ceremony would be a somber occasion, but not everyone would agree with you. Either this is an especially skillful photo shop effort or Michelle Obama has no clue whatsoever about the nature of this event. U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti’s parents received the award for him. I hope they didn’t notice the first lady’s stunningly inappropriate dress, but that’s unlikely.

Here is video of President Obama awarding the Medal of Honor posthumously to Sergeant First Class Jared Monti from Massachusetts. (Watch Video)

Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti - Medal of Honor Operation Enduring Freedom Official Narrative In June of 2006, the 3rd Squadron of the 71st Cavalry Regiment (Recon), 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, prepared to execute Operation Gowardesh Thrust, a Squadron size operation in the Gremen Valley, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.

Soon after Sgt. Jared Monti died -- killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while trying to save a comrade high in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2006 -- his father Paul found hidden in his son's bedroom drawer a bronze star, five Army commendation medals and four Army achievement medals. "He never told anyone he won them. He was always very humble. He didn't want accolades. He didn't want medals. He wanted his work to speak for itself. When he was a kid he was never one to jump up and down and say 'look at me,'" said Paul Monti.

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Across just a few deadly yards of rocky terrain, the private’s cries grew weaker. Even though bullets came pouring in like hail, Staff Sgt. Jared Monti made a break for it. The enemy was strong — maybe 50, to the 16 Americans. But Pvt. Brian Bradbury was Monti’s guy. He was isolated and bleeding badly on this grim mountain ridge in northeastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province. Monti didn’t get far. A barrage of fire cut down the 30-year-old moments before air cover he’d requested arrived. Exhausted and reeling from a desperate fight that left Monti and another...

President Barack Obama has a beaming smile as he arrives with new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor during a reception in her honor, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama reaches around the head dress of Chief Joseph Medicine Crow to place a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama presents the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Chita Rivera, who, as a Puerto Rican-American, broke barriers as an...

Five Medals of Honor have been awarded for actions during the war on terrorism. In each case, the recipient took extraordinary action to save the lives of his fellow warriors, and in each case, he was killed or mortally wounded in the process. Most Medals of Honor are awarded posthumously: 55 percent in Word War II, two-thirds in Vietnam and 75 percent in the Korean conflict. Not a single Medal of Honor has been awarded to a living recipient for an ongoing conflict since 1973.

This page is devoted to the pre-eminent heroes of the War on Terror. The men who have been awarded their nations very highest decorations for bravery in service in this war. This page will be updated to include all people who receive those decorations. The decorations are:

Thirteen Medal of Honor winners lie forgotten in a small San Antonio cemetery.

Defense official tells Hunter that modern warfare limits troop-on-troop contactIs high-tech warfare making combat safer and leading to fewer Medal of Honor winners from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? That's the suggestion of a Defense Department official in a letter to Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-El Cajon, who says there are more deserving troops from America's current conflicts than the five who have won the honor. Gail McGinn, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote Hunter a letter earlier this month suggesting electronic warfare may be one reason why only a handful of U.S. troops have been awarded...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Gura writes, "Today I offer something which will make you stand a little straighter, a little prouder to be an American." Do you know who Jason L. Dunham is? How about Paul Ray Smith? You should because they are two of America’s finest sons; they are heroes in the War on Terror. These days the press doesn’t seem to care very much about conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. No, they’re too busy whining every time some two bit terrorist thug sniffles, or mugging over Paris Hilton’s latest foibles to tell you about...

The U.S. military appears to have toughened its standards for bestowing the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor in battle, to exclude troops who survive their heroic acts, a California lawmaker charged Thursday. Either troops are "not as brave as they used to be, which I don't believe is true," or the criteria for the award have been amended "so that you have to die" to receive it, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif., told the Army's top civilian and uniformed leaders. Hunter's assertion during a House Armed Services Committee hearing drew a rebuke from Gen. George Casey,...

Mary Edwards Walker, one of the nation's 1.8 million women veterans, was the only one to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor, for her service during the Civil War. She, along with thousands of other women, were honored in the newly-dedicated Women in Military Service for America Memorial in October 1997

Medal of Honor recipients retired Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell (center) and retired Col. Robert Howard (right), watch as Spc. Mikah Appleman operates a gyro-cam inside a Buffalo vehicle. Littrell and Howard visited the 225th Engineer Brigade Soldiers on Camp Liberty, April 15. Photo by Sgt. Rebekah Malone, 225th Engineer Brigade. BAGHDAD — With only 97 Medal of Honor holders living, meeting a recipient of America’s highest military decoration is not something that happens every day. Recently, Soldiers from the 225th Engineer Brigade got the chance to meet two living heroes; retired Col. Robert Howard and retired Command Sgt. Maj....

We’ve recently had discussions of America’s exceptionalism — the unique and magnificent place in history of this country, the greatest nation in the history of the world, a unique and powerful democracy, with virtually unlimited productivity, generosity and humanity.  This adds up to the unique and wonderful role America plays in the world. I would have thought that everyone would see that all of reason and history would without question concede this American exceptionalism. But I was wrong. When our president, Barack Obama, was asked about that American exceptionalism while traveling abroad, he seemed to hem and haw and finally...

This is an e-mail I was given. Many may have received it, but the media will not do its job, so it is up to us. This is an inspiring story about a true hero who was buried at Ft Rosecrans, a beautiful resting place for some of our best....... PO2 (EOD2) (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Mike Monsoor, a Navy EOD Technician, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for jumping on a grenade in Iraq, giving his life to save his fellow Seals. (Notice: Mike was not a Navy SEAL, he was EOD. He gave his life to save...

You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam.... and you are learning that War is Hell. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As...

Russell Dunham, a World War II Army veteran who received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration for valor, after he assaulted three German machine gun emplacements, killed nine German soldiers and took two prisoners on a snowy morning in 1945, died Monday at his home in Godfrey, Ill., of congestive heart failure. He was 89. On Jan. 8, 1945, Tech. Sgt. Dunham's company, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, was facing a formidable German force at the small town of Kayserberg, France, on the Franco-German border. The men were issued white mattress covers as camouflage in the deep...

The Freeper Canteen Observes National Medal Of Honor Day Just one day after awarding the Medal of Honor to Bruce Crandall--a veteran of the Vietnam War--the U.S. Congress acted to recommend creation of a national "Medal of Honor Day." WHY MARCH 25th? The date of March 25th was chosen to highlight this special day because it was on March 25 (1863) that the first Medals of Honor were presented...to six members of Andrews' Raiders. WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT? National Medal of Honor day is celebrated in some communities, however for the most part the occasion comes and...

President Barack Obama assists National Medal of Honor recipient John Finn, 99, as they and other recipients celebrate National Medal of Honor Day by placing a wreath at the Tomb of The Unknowns, Wednesday,, march 25, 2009, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Wednesday, Va President Barack Obama shakes hands with Medal of Honor recipient Bob Howard, and other recipients, during a wreath laying ceremony to celebrate National Medal of Honor Day, Wednesday, March 25,2009, at the Tomb of The Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va

The Whiteboard UPDATE -- SURPRISE EVENT: Obama made an unannounced visit to Arlington National Cemetery for a Medal of Honor ceremony -- which the White House just left off of his schedule today. This was Obama's first wreath-laying as president of the United States. -- Carol E. Lee (2:35 p.m.) COMING UP -- ROBERT GIBBS: Will he be asked... 1) How much of the president’s original proposals need to be included in the final budget for the White House to consider this a victory? Is he willing to compromise on cap and trade? 2) Why didn’t Reuters or any of...

Last week, the Medal of Honor Society announced that Rick Rescorla will be one of three people awarded its highest civilian honor, the Above & Beyond Citizen Medal at a ceremony on Wednesday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va. The award will be presented to Kim and Trevor Rescorla, Rick's children.

Erecting Statue to local Medal of Honor Hero Drive begins to raise funds Stamford,CT — The Homer L. Wise Memorial Committee announced today the beginning of a major fund raising drive to erect a Bronze Statue of Master Sergeant Homer L. Wise. Sgt. Wise, of Stamford was awarded the Medal of Honor on June 14, 1944 for heroism during World War II. The Medal of Honor is highest military decoration given by the United States. He was also the recipient of The Silver Star, The Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts and eleven other decorations. One of the most decorated infantrymen...

One of the mysteries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan involves the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest commendation for bravery. Why have there been so few awards (four for Iraq and one for Afghanistan)? And why have all five been posthumous? In World War II, the posthumous figure for Medals of Honor was 57% and in Vietnam 38%. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine officer, sent a letter this week to President Obama asking for a "thorough examination" of the Medal of Honor selection process. "I am concerned that either knowingly...

According to TSO who was at the “Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball”, this newly sworn-in President for the first time in 56 years blew off the ball (that’s 14 Inaugurations). TSO is one of the Mil-bloggers at "This Ain't Hell". A tradition for over a half century until "The Loser" with his nose in the air snubbed the Medal of Honor winners.

Another milestone for our new President: he’s the first President in 56 years to snub the American Legion’s “Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball.”

According to TSO who was at the “Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball”, this newly sworn-in President for the first time in 56 years blew off the ball (that’s 14 Inaugurations). Some background on the ball: "The American Legion sponsors the ball, which recognizes recipients of Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. It started in 1953 for President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first inauguration. Event co-sponsors include 13 other veterans service organizations, among them the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Paralyzed Veterans of America." So where was our new President instead of honoring Medal of Honor recipients...

Interesting note when I did a search in Google for information about the "Salute to Heroes Ball" I came across this little blurb: "Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) 21, 2009 – President Barack Obama snubbed almost 50 Medal of Honor recipients by not appearing at the Salute to Heroes ball yesterday. ... www.vfw.org/ - Similar pages - "When I followed the blurb to the vfw website I found this: Burger King Presents $250,000 to VFW Unmet NeedsKANSAS CITY, MO., Jan. 20, 2009--A check for $250,000 was presented to the VFW Foundation for the Unmet Needs program in front of nearly...

While bidding the nation farewell, President Bush remembered 9/11: "As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11, but I never did." Yet Bush has apparently forgotten the greatest hero of that fateful day -- Rick Rescorla, who gave his life while saving more than 2,700 people in the World Trade Center. Rick Rescorla was on duty on the 44th floor of the World Trade Center, Tower Two. He was vice president for corporate security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and a jumbo jet had just plowed into...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2009 – America’s most senior defense leaders honored 43 men who risked their lives with unmatched heroism in service to their country during a luncheon here today. The men honored had all earned the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, and they will attend the presidential inauguration as honored guests tomorrow. “More than 1,500 Medals of Honor were awarded in the Civil War,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the men. “In the century-and-a-half since, whenever the United States has been forced into action on the battlefield, wherever we have been forced to defend and...

Bronx soldier Cornelius Charlton gave his life for his country in the Korean War and got a Medal of Honor for it.  This week, he will finally get the rest of what was coming to him when the Army sergeant's remains are buried in Arlington National Cemetery - ending a half century of mystery, bitter tears and a quest to ennoble the young hero. Snapping a salute as Army soldiers fold the U.S. flag into a triangle and a chaplain prays over the grave will be a cluster of graying veterans from the Bronx who made it their mission to...

Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter has announced that the newest Zumwalt class destroyer will be named the Michael Monsoor for a SEAL who died in Iraq when he threw himself on a grenade to save two teammates. Winter made the announcement last night at a Navy SEAL Warrior Fund benefit gala in New York City, according to a Department of Defense news release. Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor earlier this year for his actions in Ramadi, Iraq in September 2006. “Michael Monsoor’s name will now be linked with one of our nation’s most visible examples of military...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' decision to award Sgt. Rafael Peralta a Navy Cross instead of a Medal of Honor makes no sense. Either Peralta grabbed a grenade to protect his fellow Marines or he did not. If Peralta grabbed the grenade then he deserves a Medal of Honor. If he did not grab the grenade than there is no reason to award him a Navy Cross. Peralta was born in Mexico and joined the Marines as soon as he received a green card. He subsequently became a U.S. citizen while serving in the Marines. On November 15, 2004, while...

According to the secretary of the Navy, Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta gave his life to save his comrades in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004, grabbing a hostile grenade, pulling it to his body and absorbing the brunt of the blast. President Bush later praised Peralta as a hero. But a decision by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates not to recommend him for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, stirred an outcry yesterday by his family and Marines whose lives he saved. Peralta instead will be posthumously awarded the second-highest award for valor in combat, the...

Nathan G. Gordon, a Navy pilot who received the Medal of Honor for rescuing other aviators in World War II, and who later became Arkansas's longest-serving lieutenant governor, died Sept. 8 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock. He was 92 and had pneumonia and other ailments.

September 18, 2008 For G-d's Sake, Give This Deceased American Hero His Medal! By Debbie Schlussel Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta is a role model for all Americans, whether they are immigrants like him or native born. He made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life to save those of his fellow Marines. Sadly, nitpickers in our military are denying him and his grieving family the Medal of Honor. It's a travesty. This late patriot deserves the honor. He earned it in blood and gutted limbs. This is the kind of one-time illegal alien I wish we had more of in America....

Service announces that Sgt. Rafael Peralta will instead get Navy Cross CAMP PENDLETON ---- A Marine nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor and singled out by President Bush for throwing his bullet-riddled body on a grenade to protect fellow Marines in Iraq in 2004 won't be receiving the award, his mother said Wednesday. Rosa Peralta said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard Nantonski informed her Wednesday morning that her son, Sgt. Rafael "Rafa" Peralta, of the Hawaii-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, will instead be awarded the Navy Cross. Download the citation Natonski indicated that a committee reviewing the nomination...

September 12, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Giants Among the Lilliputians True honor. By Kathleen Parker Camden, S.C. — While the political class was focused on the meaning of pigs wearing lipstick, a few fortunate South Carolinians were riveted by the meaning of valor. The occasion was a celebration of four of the state’s living recipients of the Medal of Honor — Charles Murray Jr., (Army, WWII, 1944), John Baker (Army, Vietnam, 1966), James Livingston (USMC, Vietnam, 1968), and Michael Thornton (Navy, Vietnam, 1972). (snip)

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman of Boise died Wednesday morning, according to a friend of the Freeman family. He was 80 years old. -- SNIP -- As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the la Drang Valley.

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Richard Pearson HobsonAll info and photos from this website.             Richard Pearson Hobson was born in Greensboro in Hale County in the western Black Belt of Alabama. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1889. He was ostracized by his fellow midshipmen for his total abstinence from alcohol and...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Michael Thornton"You can only take your memories and your word, and your honor to the grave."Info and photos from this website.             Michael E. Thornton U.S. Navy Seals Michael E. Thornton, a native of South Carolina, enlisted in the United States Navy in 1967. He entered basic training at...

Over the decades, the Medal of Honor—the highest award for valor—has evolved into the U.S. military equivalent of sainthood. Only eight Medals of Honor have been awarded since the Vietnam War, all posthumously. “You don’t have to die to win it, but it helps,” says Army Colonel Thomas P. Smith. A West Point graduate from the Bronx, Smith has a unique perspective. He was a battalion commander in Iraq when one of his men performed actions that resulted in the Medal of Honor. It was then-Lieutenant Colonel Smith who pushed the paperwork for the award through the Pentagon bureaucracy, a...

Michael J. Daly, a lifetime resident of Fairfield and a Medal of Honor recipient in World War II, died at home today. He was 83. The cause of death, according to a relative, was pancreatic cancer. President Harry S. Truman placed the blue ribbon of the Congressional Medal of Honor around the neck of 20-year-old Capt. Daly at the White House on Aug. 23, 1945. The award gave the modest Daly an aura of celebrity, which thereafter caused him some embarrassment. "I'm no hero," he often said. "The heroes were those who gave their lives." During World War II, which...

In the decades since they shared a prison cell in North Vietnam, George "Bud" Day has remained a close friend of Republican John McCain and emerged as a staunch opponent of Democrats seeking the presidency. As he did in 2004, when he took the lead in questioning Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War record, Day is eager this fall to do whatever he can to retain the White House for the Republicans _ especially this Republican. "I just want everyone to understand the difference between a board-certified physician and a student in medical school, because that is the difference,"...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~PFC Jacklyn H. Lucas All info and photos from this website.             Although only 14 years of age, having a muscular build, 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall and weighing 180 pounds (82 kg), he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve without his mother's consent on August 6, 1942. He gave his age as 17, and...

Early in the morning of June 6, 1944, Americans heard on their radios that thousands of American and British soldiers had landed on the beaches of northern France. They were fighting German soldiers. This day marked the beginning of the end of one of the bloodiest wars ever: World War II. The American and British invasion of France was a top-secret mission called "Operation Overlord." When they landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, the goal of every soldier was to drive the German military back. Thousands of men died during that effort, either in the churning...

Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, hospital. He was 80. Jack Lucas, seen here being acknowleged by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in March, had been battling cancer. Lucas had been battling cancer. Ponda Lee at Moore Funeral Service said the funeral home was told he died before dawn. Jacklyn "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation's highest military...

JACKSON, Miss. - Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. He was 80. Lucas had been battling cancer. Ponda Lee at Moore Funeral Service said the funeral home was told he died before dawn. Jacklyln "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation's highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades,...