Literature Review

What are heroes? Webster’s Dictionary describes a hero as “one that shows great courage” or “an illustrious warrior. How does a nation honor its heroes? Abraham Lincoln said, “Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.” The United States honors its greatest heroes with the Medal of Honor, for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own life above and beyond the call of duty”. In total the US has awarded 3,467 Medals of Honor. There are many sources of information on these true Americans. I have chosen three as primary resources to discover more about these men.

The first is Medal of Honor Recipients 1863-1978. This is an official publication put out by the Congress and prepared by the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. This contains summaries on the actions in which each man earned his Medal of Honor, as well as a brief history on the Medal. Though these descriptions of each man’s actions are helpful they do not connect the men are tell anything else about them. What happened to them afterwards? Were they treated like heroes who had earned the nations highest honor? That is what this book does not tell us. There is no before or after view into their lives, only a description of that brief point of incredible courage.

Another primary resource I am using is the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s website. They provide much of the current information on awards, events and recipients. It also gives the goals of the society. While this is useful for the community as whole and their outlook on the country it does not provide information on the personal views of recipients after the award. Nor does it tell anything about the future plans of the military in terms of awarding the Medal of Honor. All of the Medal of Honor awards since Vietnam have been posthumous awards. What do living recipients think of the rarity of the award and if it will be presented to another living hero? This is a question I will be investigating.

My last source is Above and Beyond: A History of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Vietnam. This is a history of the Medal of Honor itself and does not go into specific examples unless it serves to present a defining point in the history of the Medal. This book along with the Congressional publication above give an excellent view on the past and recipient’s acts but not on their actions after the Medal presentations nor the future of the Medal of Honor Society.

Imput Anyone?

So I was doing research on the Medal of Honor Recipients and it doesn't seem like there is a lot of research that has been done on them. There are lots of books and websites but they just have the stories, not a lot of connection between the Recipients or their families. My question to yall is, what is one thing I should find out about the Medal of Honor Community?

Thanks
Dan

Site Visit

So since the best thing for a site visit to a community that you want to study is a visit to them, hopefully to a big event they put on; I decided to follow the Medal of Honor Convention that is currently going on in Denver Colorado. I wanted to share with yall the bio on Col Wesley Fox, a Medal of Honor Recipient who lives in Blacksburg:

FOX, WESLEY L.

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 22 February 1969. Entered service at: Leesburg, Va. Born: 30 September 1931, Herndon, Va. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as commanding officer of Company A, in action against the enemy in the northern A Shau Valley. Capt. (then 1st Lt.) Fox's company came under intense fire from a large well concealed enemy force. Capt. Fox maneuvered to a position from which he could assess the situation and confer with his platoon leaders. As they departed to execute the plan he had devised, the enemy attacked and Capt. Fox was wounded along with all of the other members of the command group, except the executive officer. Capt. Fox continued to direct the activity of his company. Advancing through heavy enemy fire, he personally neutralized 1 enemy position and calmly ordered an assault against the hostile emplacements. He then moved through the hazardous area coordinating aircraft support with the activities of his men. When his executive officer was mortally wounded, Capt. Fox reorganized the company and directed the fire of his men as they hurled grenades against the enemy and drove the hostile forces into retreat. Wounded again in the final assault, Capt. Fox refused medical attention, established a defensive posture, and supervised the preparation of casualties for medical evacuation. His indomitable courage, inspiring initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger inspired his marines to such aggressive action that they overcame all enemy resistance and destroyed a large bunker complex. Capt. Fox's heroic actions reflect great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps, and uphold the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

1. http://www.cmohs.org/recipients/living_cites_eg.htm, 2008, Medal Of Honor Society, 9/17/08

Community event

My community, the Medal of Honor Society is starting their annual convention in Denver Colorado today. It runs from Sept 16-20, 2008. Tonight's main event is a tribute concert by Carrie Underwood for our Medal of Honor recipients.

You can visit the website at

www.medalofhonor2008.org

Course goals for 1204H:

Stay on track with research and writing for the Research Proposal

Use Commas correctly

To correctly present my research with as little bias as possible

I might add more later, but this is my starting point.

Breakthrough of MOHS

I have found out the contact info for the local Medal of Honor Recipient, Col Wesley Fox.

Interview should be coming up soon....

A Morning and Breakfast with TC 1-3

The Corps of Cadets’ Class of 2012 is a tight knit group of people. Adversity will do that to a group. Bonds are formed during hard times and when those times end friendships are stronger then before the trials.

Mornings are especially rough. On Upper Quad and in all the Cadet Dorms freshmen have to “drag” around the halls, following the right edge of halls or sidewalks. Buds from TC 1-3 meet in room 447, “the Call room,” to check each other’s uniforms. After the call room meeting we drag around the hall to the left side and the stop in groups in between our buds’ doors. Seven buds on the first wall section, eight on the second, and six on the third. First call and last call are sounded and we all depart down the stairs onto the VT for Morning Formation. When formation is finished we return through halls past half finished freshman paintings to our rooms. Because we have trouble getting our rooms inspection ready we are assigned a bud’s room to double check before we leave. I am assigned room 450 to check before my 0800 Calculus Class. It didn’t take long because my buds had done a good job cleaning up. The only thing that needed fixing was Bud Bernard’s sandals; they were out of line with the other shoes.

I met back up with my buds in D2 for Breakfast after my Calculus Class. Breakfast is a good time for TC 1-3. We don’t have upperclassmen hounding us or requiring us to greet them. We talk about the day and our homework that is due. A bud from another TC leaves almost as soon as I arrive with my food.

“I have to get to Astronomy, and still need to write an Essay for class so I have 30 minutes to write something,” he said.

Justin, one of my buds, said, “Why isn’t that at night?”

“It’s not a lab, just a class that’s why it’s in the morning,” he said.

We talk about the rifles, Springfield’s M1903, that we use for drill. The only things that prevent them from firing and being serviceable rifles are no firing pins, and some have their barrels plugged. This discussion leads into a debate of which of our cadre members we like the least; whether C/SSG Darnley or C/S1C Wright is the most annoying. At this point the group begins to break up and take the dishes to the Dish Return so we can get to morning classes. We say good-by and go about our ways, to class or to study.

Cutting and pasting into Blogger....

Ok, so I'm not that good with HTML and when I cut and paste from MS Word it won't let me publish the post due to some error in the HTML. Anyone know what's going on?

Thanks
Dan

Plans Change...

So, I changed my mind and decided that researching the Medal Of Honor Society would be an interesting way to spend a semester. So that, as of now, is what I am researching.

Dan

Research Ideas: Top 3

So I did some research on the Blacksburg area and Community Service groups in Blacksburg to come up with my top three picks for this research paper.

Project Linus

Blacksburg Host Lions Club

Shawnee Hunt Club

Researching and then possibly helping these groups will make this first semester interesting.