A hall of real-life superheroes
Medal of Honor (MOH) recipients trace our roots to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. On our roll are names that will forever be a part of American history: Sgt. York, Buffalo Bill, Charles Lindbergh, Teddy Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur and Jimmy Doolittle.
No other group better represents the courage, diversity, capacity for selflessness, compassion and honor so characteristic of the majority of our people. We count among us pioneers and leaders in every aspect of our culture. Most religions are represented, as is every race.
There are generals and privates, paupers and millionaires, teachers, lawyers, doctors, poets, and men of God, chaplains. Prisoners, as in POWs and convicts. We are a collection of citizens who not only defended our culture but helped develop, design and enrich it, who turned America from plenty of land into a land of plenty. We are not characterized by wealth or rank or class, but by patriotism – the highest form of which is service to our youth. We believe life has no meaning unless lived for the benefit of future generations.
We have been honored time and again, but what we would like to see honored most are the values that motivated us. The Medal of Honor is a symbol, from the Greek “symbolon,” meaning “half token.” Joined with the other half, it represents something above and beyond itself. The other half token of the U.S. flag, for instance, are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. That is why when you burn our flag, you are symbolically burning the foundation of our country. The other half token of the MOH are courage, sacrifice and patriotism, which are the foundation of our freedoms and guardians of our Constitution. We don’t believe we did America a favor by our service and sacrifice; we believe God did us a favor by allowing us to be born in this most exceptional country, where freedom is our birthright.
A patriot is not someone who simply says he loves his country, but proves he loves his country through his willingness to support and defend it. Sadly, for the first time in Gallup’s 18-year history of asking how proud young people are to be Americans, less than a majority say they are “extremely proud.” The reason for this may be that patriotism is not as emphasized in education as it once was. A democratic society cannot survive without patriots.
Another source of our declining pride in the United States may be a lack of knowledge of who we are as a nation. A recent YouGov survey found that only one in six Americans can pass a basic U.S. history quiz. You cannot love who we are if you don’t know who we are. This shift could prove disastrous in any crisis demanding the full support of our people.
A plea of many disadvantaged students is that “you have not been where we have.” That is true in many cases, but not of MOH recipients. We have been where those students are and then some, making us uniquely effective as teachers and role models. With this in mind, we have created a free Character Development Program, online at themedalofhonor.com/character-development.
To clearly define patriotism, I tell the story of Webster Anderson, a great black soldier. Early one morning in Vietnam, his unit was attacked by communist forces. The initial attack pretty much took off both his legs. Yet he continued to fight. He caught a grenade, which blew off an arm as he tried to throw it clear of his men. Still he fought on. I flew in and picked up what was left of Webster after he had inspired his men to defeat the enemy. Miraculously, the medics saved his life, but his efforts to save his men cost him both legs and an arm, and earned him the Medal of Honor.
Webster and I became close friends, and years later spoke together at a school in Oklahoma. One of the children asked Webster if he would do what he did again, knowing what it would cost him. He said, “Kid, I only have one arm left, but my country can have it any time they want.”
In addition to our Career Development Program, MOH recipients are dedicated to further promote courage, sacrifice and patriotism by building a National Medal of Honor Museum. The concept is simple: 1) inspire and educate through stories like Webster’s; 2) honor our past heroes to inspire future leaders; and 3) grow patriots.
This museum will inspire patriotism, the lifeblood of a democracy. It will be a sanctuary for the stories, legacy and contributions of the medal’s recipients – a vault for our national values. We have museums to America’s wars and branches of service. The National Medal of Honor Museum will encompass them all, because MOH recipients served in each and every one. It will identify and connect the individual values that win on the battlefield to the education of those who will win the future of America. This museum will be unique among all the museums of the world.
It will focus on the psyche of young people entering an arena of superheroes who wore dog tags instead of capes. At the museum, they will be thrilled with visuals of individual courage and sacrifice, the foundation of their freedoms. They will realize that physical courage can win a battle but moral courage can change the world.
They will see on Mount Rushmore not only great Americans but an MOH recipient, Theodore Roosevelt, who declared what has become the museum’s motto: “The lives of truest heroism are those in which there are no great deeds to look back upon. It is the little things well done that go to make up a truly successful and good life.”
They will learn that it was a MOH recipient who first flew solo across the Atlantic, who first flew in clouds using a gyro to open up the skies for all, who was the first commissioner of the American Football League. It was MOH recipients who were great athletes, a president, members of Congress, mayors, governors, journalists, actors, builders of our railroads, and generals who fought and won our wars. It was an MOH recipient who composed taps, who founded the CIA, and on and on.
We are not all born equal in terms of ability or opportunity, but in the one way that counts – matters of courage – we are all born equal. The key to success in life is mental, moral and physical courage, and God has made this gift infinitely available to all of us; you can’t use it up.
Students will walk out of the National Medal of Honor Museum with the conviction that they too can be heroes, understanding that the values of courage and sacrifice these men drew on to excel in combat they also drew on to excel in life, and as a result were a blessing to America. They will learn that fear is an emotion, but courage is a decision, and it is the great equalizer in life, producing great people from those among us who were not born with great ability or opportunity.
G.K. Chesterton said, “Art is the signature of man.” This museum will be the signature of all MOH recipients, and the values they embodied in our past and hope to inspire in our future.
Patrick H. Brady is a retired Army major general, Medal of Honor recipient and former chairman of the Citizens Flag Alliance.