MUST-SEE TV ALERT! PBS’ Medal of Honor

For example, it notes that no African American or Asian-American was recommended for the medal during World Wars I & II, recounting efforts during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidential administrations to redress what was likely discrimination by directing reviews of military records and which resulted in the award of the Medal of Honor to several African Americans (all but one deceased) and over twenty Japanese-Americans (including U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye) for their wartime heroism that had been officially ignored. Likewise, Sherman also delves into what is probably the most controversial Medal of Honor award – Civil War doctor Mary Edwards Walker. The only woman to ever receive the medal, Walker’s 1865 award was rescinded as a result of a general review of all Medals of Honor in 1917 that withdrew over 900 medals. Walker refused to return her medal, wearing it every day of her life until her death in 1919. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter restored her Medal of Honor to her posthumously. Although the controversies are an important part of the Medal of Honor’s history and necessary for any comprehensive coverage of the subject, the heart of this excellent documentary remains the inspiring stories of the 18 individual awardees and their incredible acts of heroism – this is “must see TV” at its best.

Medal of Honor’s corporate sponsor, the Boeing Company, is to be highly commended for making this outstanding program possible.

The man in the photo to the right is George ‘Bud’ Day, who received the Medal of Honor for his years of brutal captivity in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ during the Vietnam War, visits the Winston Churchill Memorial & Library at Westminster College in Fulton, MO.

ACG Editor in Chief (then Executive Director of the Churchill Memorial), Jerry Morelock, had the honor and privilege of meeting this true hero during Day’s tour of the Memorial’s Korean War exhibit in 2002. Day was also a veteran of the Korean War.

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