thedrifter
10-17-06, 12:29 PM
October 23, 2006
Big sacrifice, big benefits
Medal of Honor recipients earn respect, monthly stipend and more
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
BOSTON — Living Medal of Honor recipients say wearing the award is sometimes tougher than earning it.
The medal also evokes different emotions among those who have it. One Vietnam-era recipient said he wears his medal for all green-side Navy corpsmen, while a Korean War recipient said the medal forces him to remember some things he’d rather forget.
But although the medal may come at a high price — for most recipients, the ultimate price — it also comes with perks.
The medal’s 111 living recipients — many of whom attended the annual Medal of Honor convention here the last week of September — are given a tax-free monthly stipend of $1,000 dollars. Recipients’ children get automatic appointment to the service academies, provided they can meet physical requirements.
And Congress has authorized a special flag that only recipients are allowed to fly at home — a light blue banner with gold fringes and thirteen white stars configured as they are on the medal’s ribbon.
Army Lt. Col. Gordon Roberts, a surgeon with Theater Support Command, is the only Medal of Honor recipient on active duty. He received the award for launching a one-man assault on four fortified enemy bunkers in Vietnam in 1969.
“The soldiers give you a lot of respect, and you can see it in their eyes,” Roberts said. “It’s kind of nice to see in the young soldiers.”
The respect comes from above as well as below. Roberts said when he checks into a new post, the commanding general usually wants to meet him personally — and often, that general’s commanding general wants to meet him, too.
“When you first meet folks, everyone wants you to speak at their dining-in,” he said.
Robert Simanek, a former private first class who received the medal for throwing himself on a grenade and saving his Korean War comrades in 1952, said medal recipients are “invited to so many things and asked to speak that I always have to have something prepared.”
Simanek, who was given a free membership to his local country club in South Lyons, Mich., said he once got to play a round with former Marine Commandant Gen. Al Gray.
Privates first class “don’t normally get to do that,” he said.
Medal of Honor recipients rate special license plates on the front and back of their vehicles, which came in handy for Simanek when he found himself in a highway traffic jam.
“A policeman saw the plates and stopped traffic in both directions to let me through,” he said.
Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lucas was 14 when he lied about his age, forged his mother’s signature and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He threw himself on two enemy grenades to save the Marines in his fighting hole during the battle for Iwo Jima.
He was only 17 when he received the nation’s highest award for valor and returned to his hometown to resume 9th grade — a high school freshman with the Medal of Honor.
So what’s that like? Lucas said he bought a red convertible and managed to put more mileage on the back seat than the engine.
Lucas said he can fly anywhere on military aircraft, and the medal gives him priority over everyone except troops on official orders.
In addition, awardees get free airfare from commercial airlines when flying to and from official Medal of Honor functions such as the annual living recipients’ convention.
“I get invited to cities all over the country,” Lucas said. “Next month, I’m speaking at Duke University.”
One such city is Gainesville, Texas, where the Medal of Honor Host City Program raises funds specifically for any recipients who might visit the 20,000 people who live there.
All recipients have to do is call ahead before arriving and they are given a stipend of $250 each day they spend in the city, up to three days per calendar year — “and their money is no good here,” said program spokesman Gary Alexander.
“Down here in Texas, there’s always a barbeque,” Alexander said. “It’s just good southern hospitality, and nobody deserves it more than these guys. All we really ask is that we get a chance to show them our hospitality and, if they have time, to speak to some of our schoolchildren.”
The oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, 97-year-old John Finn, who earned his award when the Japanese attacked Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, has a ranch about 70 miles east of Naval Station San Diego. He said active-duty sailors come out to his ranch about once a month, help him with a few chores and stay for a cookout.
Kansas native Walter Ehlers, the only living medal recipient from the D-Day invasion of Normandy, said his adopted community in Buena Park, Calif., has embraced him, too.
“The community has a park named after me, and a recreation center,” he said.
Don Ballard and Robert Ingram, both Navy corpsmen who earned the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of Marines in Vietnam, have Navy medical clinics named after them in Florida — Ballard’s in Mayport and Ingram’s in Jacksonville.
Ingram noted that the naval hospital at Camp Pendleton, Calif., is also named after Ballard, although it hasn’t been dedicated yet.
The flight deck on the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima is named after Lucas, and a record of his actions on that island are inscribed on the ship’s mast.
“My story goes along with the ship wherever it goes,” he said.
That may be the biggest perk that comes with the Medal of Honor: military immortality.
Ellie
Big sacrifice, big benefits
Medal of Honor recipients earn respect, monthly stipend and more
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
BOSTON — Living Medal of Honor recipients say wearing the award is sometimes tougher than earning it.
The medal also evokes different emotions among those who have it. One Vietnam-era recipient said he wears his medal for all green-side Navy corpsmen, while a Korean War recipient said the medal forces him to remember some things he’d rather forget.
But although the medal may come at a high price — for most recipients, the ultimate price — it also comes with perks.
The medal’s 111 living recipients — many of whom attended the annual Medal of Honor convention here the last week of September — are given a tax-free monthly stipend of $1,000 dollars. Recipients’ children get automatic appointment to the service academies, provided they can meet physical requirements.
And Congress has authorized a special flag that only recipients are allowed to fly at home — a light blue banner with gold fringes and thirteen white stars configured as they are on the medal’s ribbon.
Army Lt. Col. Gordon Roberts, a surgeon with Theater Support Command, is the only Medal of Honor recipient on active duty. He received the award for launching a one-man assault on four fortified enemy bunkers in Vietnam in 1969.
“The soldiers give you a lot of respect, and you can see it in their eyes,” Roberts said. “It’s kind of nice to see in the young soldiers.”
The respect comes from above as well as below. Roberts said when he checks into a new post, the commanding general usually wants to meet him personally — and often, that general’s commanding general wants to meet him, too.
“When you first meet folks, everyone wants you to speak at their dining-in,” he said.
Robert Simanek, a former private first class who received the medal for throwing himself on a grenade and saving his Korean War comrades in 1952, said medal recipients are “invited to so many things and asked to speak that I always have to have something prepared.”
Simanek, who was given a free membership to his local country club in South Lyons, Mich., said he once got to play a round with former Marine Commandant Gen. Al Gray.
Privates first class “don’t normally get to do that,” he said.
Medal of Honor recipients rate special license plates on the front and back of their vehicles, which came in handy for Simanek when he found himself in a highway traffic jam.
“A policeman saw the plates and stopped traffic in both directions to let me through,” he said.
Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lucas was 14 when he lied about his age, forged his mother’s signature and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He threw himself on two enemy grenades to save the Marines in his fighting hole during the battle for Iwo Jima.
He was only 17 when he received the nation’s highest award for valor and returned to his hometown to resume 9th grade — a high school freshman with the Medal of Honor.
So what’s that like? Lucas said he bought a red convertible and managed to put more mileage on the back seat than the engine.
Lucas said he can fly anywhere on military aircraft, and the medal gives him priority over everyone except troops on official orders.
In addition, awardees get free airfare from commercial airlines when flying to and from official Medal of Honor functions such as the annual living recipients’ convention.
“I get invited to cities all over the country,” Lucas said. “Next month, I’m speaking at Duke University.”
One such city is Gainesville, Texas, where the Medal of Honor Host City Program raises funds specifically for any recipients who might visit the 20,000 people who live there.
All recipients have to do is call ahead before arriving and they are given a stipend of $250 each day they spend in the city, up to three days per calendar year — “and their money is no good here,” said program spokesman Gary Alexander.
“Down here in Texas, there’s always a barbeque,” Alexander said. “It’s just good southern hospitality, and nobody deserves it more than these guys. All we really ask is that we get a chance to show them our hospitality and, if they have time, to speak to some of our schoolchildren.”
The oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, 97-year-old John Finn, who earned his award when the Japanese attacked Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, has a ranch about 70 miles east of Naval Station San Diego. He said active-duty sailors come out to his ranch about once a month, help him with a few chores and stay for a cookout.
Kansas native Walter Ehlers, the only living medal recipient from the D-Day invasion of Normandy, said his adopted community in Buena Park, Calif., has embraced him, too.
“The community has a park named after me, and a recreation center,” he said.
Don Ballard and Robert Ingram, both Navy corpsmen who earned the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of Marines in Vietnam, have Navy medical clinics named after them in Florida — Ballard’s in Mayport and Ingram’s in Jacksonville.
Ingram noted that the naval hospital at Camp Pendleton, Calif., is also named after Ballard, although it hasn’t been dedicated yet.
The flight deck on the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima is named after Lucas, and a record of his actions on that island are inscribed on the ship’s mast.
“My story goes along with the ship wherever it goes,” he said.
That may be the biggest perk that comes with the Medal of Honor: military immortality.
Ellie