WASHINGTON — Tuesday is National Medal of Honor Day, celebrating the nearly 3,500 service members since 1861 who have been awarded the country’s highest military honor.
The Medal is given to service members who go above and beyond in the line of duty, putting the mission and others ahead of themselves. Virginia is credited with 50 Medal of Honor recipients, including Sgt. William Carney of Norfolk. Carney was the first Black soldier to receive the medal.
Chris Cassidy, CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum, said it is common for a recipient to receive the honor decades after their service.
“Over time, they get relooked and it’s called a medal upgrade from, say, a Navy Cross to a Medal of Honor,” Cassidy explained. “That happens frequently. It’s not rare that you might see they’re reviewing a Vietnam award and the person’s still living and they get an award decades after their action happened.”
In January, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act. The bill would put a national monument for Medal of Honor recipients by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
Today also is set for the grand opening of the National Medal of Honor Museum in Texas. Cassidy pointed out given limited real estate on the National Mall in D.C., it made sense the museum be built outside the nation’s capital. He emphasized it is all about the recipients of the honor.
“The museum was focused on those people. Human beings,” Cassidy stressed. “It’s not a war museum or military history museum or a place where you’ll see a ton of airplanes and tanks. This museum is storytelling about amazing Americans that did something when the country needed them to.”
More than 400 recipients of the Medal of Honor have been buried in the Commonwealth at Arlington National Cemetery.
