Legionnaires visit statue of Irish MOH recipient

Michael Coyne (Department of France Historian), Stephen A. Ward (Department of France Vice Commander) and Liam Kane (Past NEC/Post Commander of John F. Kennedy Post IR-63) visited the statue of John King at Ballinrobe, Ireland (twice awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor) for bravery. King was born in the village of Currabee near Ballinrobe, Ireland. He served on USS Vicksburg during the Philippine-American War. King received his first Medal of Honor in May 1901 for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession after an accident in the boilers. received the second medal after a boiler explosion on USS Salem in Sept. 1909. Ann Reid, whose father was King's nephew, remarked, "My dad used to talk about him all the time. On his visits to Ballinrobe, Ireland from America, he would throw sweets and coins to the children of the town." King was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Hot Springs, Ark.

Click here (http://www.legion.org/fodpal/photos/214846/john-king-and-medal-honor) for a photo album of the visit.