Free Republic

James Bradley McCloughan watched as President Donald Trump placed the Medal of Honor around his father's neck, commemorating a series of selfless, heroic acts that saved the lives of fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War, As the president read the citation during the July 2017 ceremony, the son — a Michigan state policeman — heard for the first time the story of his father's bravery under fire. "It's something that you just don't bring up for two reasons," medal recipient James Charles McCloughan explained in an interview Thursday. "No. 1, you don't want to go there. You've been through it....

I n the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and other people of color, America continues to undergo a reckoning with our nation’s original sin: racism and white supremacy. Recent events have laid bare the brutal truth that systemic inequalities and state-sanctioned violence have continued to oppress people of color in our country. In the midst of this national conversation, the history of the United States Army has come front and center, largely because of the Army’s experience in the American Civil War. By May 1861, sixty-five of eighty-six southern West Point cadets had followed their seceded home states...

The researchers compiling the U.S. Army’s accounts of Iraq and Afghanistan have an unprecedented—and overwhelming—volume of material to work through. When Major Spencer Williams was ordered to “shut down shop and move out” of Afghanistan in 2005, he closed his final message from the field as he always did—quoting a long-dead historian. “Plant yourself not in Europe but in Iraq; it will become evident that half of the roads of the Old World lead to Aleppo, and half to Bagram.” Williams made up one-third of the U.S. Army’s historical field staff in Afghanistan—a team directed to cover the breadth of...

Col. Leo K. Thorsness, one of the most highly decorated American airmen of the Vietnam War and a belated recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism on a mission that took place 11 days before he was shot down and taken prisoner, died Tuesday in Jacksonville, Fla. Colonel Thorsness, who had been brutalized during his six years of captivity at the notorious North Vietnamese prison known as the Hanoi Hilton, where he was a cellmate of John McCain’s, was 85. His death was announced by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which said he had been treated for...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington             "Months of preparation, one of those few opportunities, and the judgement of a split second are what makes some pilots an ace, while others think back on what they could have done." Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, USMC  "Pappy" was born in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho on...

Fully sixteen years after the State of Texas began honoring its military heroes with the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor, the most decorated combat soldier of World War II was finally recognized by Governor Rick Perry and the Texas legislature. Born in the Lone Star State in 1924, the 5'6", 130lb Audie Leon Murphy was told he was too small to make it in the Navy or the US Marines. So the baby-faced, underaged Texan enlisted in the Army and in early 1942 was shipped to North Africa as part of the Third Infantry Division. And in 3 years of...

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa -- Two Soldiers who gave their lives fighting in the Korean War will be posthumously given the nation’s highest military honor by President Obama during a ceremony next month, the White House said Wednesday evening. Pfc. Anthony Kaho’ohanohano and Pfc. Henry Svehla will be recognized with the Medal of Honor for braving certain death and painful wounds to charge and repel overwhelming enemy forces during the war. Family members of both Soldiers will attend the May 2 ceremony at the White House to commemorate their “selfless service and sacrifice,” according to a presidential news release.

Senior military and Pentagon officials and their families were on hand for the event at the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon.

Let us pay tribute to these champions of freedom & heroes of the Red, White & Blue! God Bless Them (Living or deceased)

NARRATIVE NOMINATING SSG DAVID BELLAVIA FOR THE MEDAL OF HONOR DURING OPERATION PHANTOM FURY FALLUJAH, IRAQ On the night of 10 November 2004 Third Platoon, A Company, Task Force 2-2 IN near OBJ Wolf in Fallujah, Iraq, was ordered to attack to destroy six to eight Anti Iraqi Forces (AIF). 1LT Edward Iwan, the A Company Executive Officer, had identified six to eight AIF who had entered a block of twelve buildings. These AIF had engaged A55 and tanks from Team Tank with automatic weapons and rocket fire. Having a 25 mm cannon malfunction, 1LT Edward Iwan cordoned off the...

A friend of mine said he saw a televised discussion on TV in which Ron Paul called a Medal of Honor winner a coward. Anyone know anything about this?

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2007 – President Bush today presented the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration, to the family of Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who died shielding his fellow Marines from a grenade blast in Iraq in April 2004. “With this medal, we pay tribute to the courage and leadership of a man who represents the best of young Americans,” Bush said before presenting the medal to Dunham’s family at the White House. Dunham, who grew up in Scio, N.Y., was the leader of a rifle squad with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, in Iraq. Dunham’s squad was conducting...

If there exists a cosmic quota for duty to country and fellow man, Alfred Rascon more than met his 40 years ago this month. Then 20 and not yet a U.S. citizen, Army Spc. 4 Rascon three times braved enemy machine-gun fire and exploding grenades to shield wounded men in his reconnaissance squad with his own body during a ferocious March 16, 1966, firefight in South Vietnam. Bleeding badly and lamed himself by a bullet and shards of shrapnel _ and refusing medical aid _ he saved the lives of many of his fellow troops, and nearly lost his own....

A strange occurrence took place recently deep in the Argonne forest of France. Two Midstate university scholars, Michael Birdwell and Tom Nolan, whooped and hollered like Predators fans reacting to a score. "We were screaming and shouting," Birdwell said. In fact, they had "scored." Combining their expertise — Birdwell in history and Nolan in high-tech mapmaking — the pair pinpointed with satellite accuracy the site where Sgt. Alvin C. York silenced a nest of German machine gunners and captured 132 prisoners during World War I. For his heroics in October 1918, the man from Pall Mall, Tenn., was awarded the...

Awarding SGT Smith of Florida; on TXCN and other news channels now.

West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw is sending letters to President Bush and the state's congressional representatives to encourage the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the 19-year-old former prisoner of war from Palestine. "It's clear to me that she demonstrates the characteristics of an American hero," McGraw said. Lynch, a supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company, was rescued April 1 from a hospital in Nasiriyah. She had been taken prisoner March 23 after her convoy took a wrong turn and was ambushed by Iraqi forces. Reports said Lynch fired on her attackers...