Remembering
Dick McCool, USN, WWII
&
Shizuya Hayashi, USA, WWII
TWO MOH Recipients
Pass a Week Apart
On Wednesday, March 5,
World War II Navy hero Richard M. "Dick" McCool
passed away peacefully at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton,
Washington. McCool was born in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, January
4, 1922, and later graduated from the University of Oklahoma
in 1941 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, and
from the Naval Academy in 1944, entering active service in the
Pacific as CO of the LCS(L)122. He was badly wounded in an
encounter June 10 and 11, 1945, off Okinawa and received the
Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman. He subsequently
saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. For more
information on memorials and burial, visit the Cook
Family Funeral Home website which includes several photos
and a guestbook.
One week after the loss
of Dick McCool, WWII Army hero Shizuya Hayashi passed away in
Hawaii. Hayashi was a member of the famed "Go For
Broke" 100th Infantry (Purple Heart) Battalion who was
originally awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his
heroism at Cerasuolo, Italy, on November 29, 1943, when he
charged up a hill against enemy positions to kill 20 enemy
soldiers and capture 4. Hayashi was one of 22 Nisei (first
generation Japanese-Americans) whose DSC awards were reviewed
and upgraded to the Medal of Honor, which was presented to him
by President Clinton in 2000.
The loss of these two
great American heroes leaves us with only 105 living
recipients of the Medal of Honor, and only 30 surviving WWII
veterans who have received the award.
Sioux Warrior
Woodrow Keeble
Awarded Medal of Honor For
Korean War Heroism
On March 3, 2008,
President Bush awarded the Medal of Honor to the family of
Army Master Sergeant Woodrow Wilson Keeble. The only Lakota
Sioux Indian to receive the Medal of Honor, Keeble served
first in World War II and then earned the Distinguished
Service Cross while fighting in the Korean War. Keeble passed
away in 1982 and will become one of the most highly decorated
Native American heroes in history. A total of 26 Native
Americans have been previously awarded the Medal of Honor, but
only Jack Montgomery, Van T. Barfoot, and Raymond Harvey
earned the Silver Star in addition. (We are still attempting
to verify if Ray Harvey ALSO earned the DSC which, if true,
would make him the only man to receive the top 3 awards.)
Keeble's previously
awarded DSC is being upgraded after more than three decades of
efforts by his family, a legislative process that gained the
non-partisan support of the entire Congressional Delegations
from both South Dakota (where Keeble was born) and North
Dakota, where Keeble entered military service.
At
least three additional Medals of Honor are anticipated
to be presented in the immediate future as well. They
are:
- PFC Henry Svehla, U.S.
Army, whose posthumous DSC for heroism in the Korean
War will be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
- Civil War heroes Philip G.
Shadrach and George D. Wilson, U.S. Army.
These two men were among those in the famous Andrews
Raid that resulted in the FIRST awards of the
Medal of Honor, but who were not numbered among the
19 awards presented. For more see: The
Andrews Raid
No
doubt some of our readers have questions on these
upgrades, so we offer the following explanation:
By
LAW, there is a time limit on the awarding of the Medal
of Honor. Every year various members of Congress
introduce legislation to waive that time limit in order
to upgrade lesser awards from previous wars to the Medal
of Honor. Some of the more famous (Doris Miller, Dick
Winters, Rex Barber, etc.) Few of these ever make it out
of their Congressional Committees.
Keeble,
Svehla, Shadrach and Wilson's Medal of Honor
recommendations were included in the Defense
Appropriations Act of 2008. When such recommendations
make it to that level, the Medal of Honor is usually
awarded within a year, which gives us good reason to
expect these other three awards very soon. |
GWOT
Medals of Honor???
Questions continue to
arise around the lack of Medals of Honor for heroism in the
Global War on Terrorism. Up until the last year I have vigorously
defended DoD and current policy, though the continued lack of
action has caused me to re-think my earlier position. My
inside sources advise that we may soon see the long hoped-for
award to Rafael Peralta, whose heroism has become legendary in
USMC lore. (See my op/ed piece on Peralta in our Talking
Points section.)
The lack of Medal of
Honor awards, and other problems in the awards system as
recently reported in NEWSWEEK and elsewhere, indicate some
serious problems in the awards process. Over the last couple
of months I have been contacted by TWO GWOT Silver Star
recipients requesting help in getting copies of their own
award citations. One Silver Star recipient recently told me he
received his award by Third Class Mail, and his name was mis-spelled.
Perhaps
even more striking was the award of the DSC a few months ago
to Lieutenant Walter Jackson. Apparently no one took the time
to tell the Secretary of the Army that the ONLY U.S. military
award that is hung around the neck is the Medal of Honor. You
can click on the image shown for a larger image. In fact, the
neck ribbon used looks like a tacky blue ribbon picked up at a
super mart--certainly it does not match the DSC suspension
ribbon as a legitimate neck ribbon SHOULD!
We continue to push for a
Congressional Hearing on the need for a National Database of
military awards, and it is my hope that such a hearing, if it occurs,
will address some of these additional problems.
SENATORS
Introduce Database Bill
While
HR 3769, the bill calling for a National Database containing
the names and citations of every veteran ever awarded any
military award remains obscurely in the House Armed Services
Committee, two U.S. Senators have joined in a bi-partisan
effort to introduce the same measure in the U.S. Senate.
Colorado Democratic Senator Ken Salazar and Florida Republican
Mel Martinez have introduced S 2610, a bill nearly identical
to the House Bill.
“This
database will ensure there is a reliable tool available to
veterans and their families,” Martinez said upon introducing
the bill. “This helps veterans and families retrieve a
service member’s information. It will also serve as an
important reminder of the bravery of true soldiers who live
among us, have come before or gave the ultimate sacrifice for
our nation.”
“It
is time that we bring the record-keeping for our veterans’
honors into the 21st century by creating a publicly searchable
database that shows the honors and distinctions our veterans
have earned,” said Senator Salazar. “This database
will help ensure that we are properly honoring our nation’s
heroes; it will also allow law enforcement to crack down on
those who falsify records and claim service they did not
perform.”
I
strongly urge all of our visitors to take time to read more
about this legislation from the link below, and then start
putting pressure on your Senators and Representatives to move
this bill forward.
(NOTE: The information that we are
requesting be included in this database will NOT violate any
privacy laws--we ask only that the database include that
information which is already available to the public through
an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act Request).
|
| WHAT IS GOING
ON AT HOMEofHEROES.COM?
I have no doubt many have
been asking this as you have watched me fall
further and further behind in updates. This is NOT
a lack of interest on my part, or a waning of my
enthusiasm for this website.
Since making the decision
early last year to attempt identifying all Silver
Star recipients, I've found myself totally swamped
and often wonder at the wisdom of tackling a
project so large. I console myself by believing
that it MUST be done to properly preserve the
accounts of valor of our heroes and drive
on.
This year I opted NOT to
return to my (income-producing) job as an
instructor at a local Community College in hopes
of catching up and driving forward. I will
continue to give it my best and watch for great
strides in our Awards section. I have obtained
more than 500 WWII Navy Cross citations to be
posted soon and am within $1,000 of being able to
COMPLETE the Navy Crosses. I further hope to
complete the DSCs by the end of 2008, which will
allow me to concentrate on the Silver Stars while
also returning more full-time attention to this
website.
I can not emphasize enough
how much I do need your financial support NOW more
than ever. The recent loss of one of our Official
Sponsors put me very much behind and halted the
progress on the Navy Cross citations. Please
continue to be patient with me, understand that
the slowness of updates in NOT an indication I am
spending less time on this effort or loosing
interest, and if you can, try to support
HomeOfHeroes.com financially. At the present I am
VERY close to having to return to an outside job
to pay the personal bills and keep this site
online.
Doug |
|
|
Doug
Sterner's
NEW BOOK
NOW AVAILABLE
Over
the last several years a couple of different publishers have
approached me about printing the stories from my web site in
book formant. I have always advised that the ONLY WAY I would
consider that would be as long as they did not object to my
keeping the stories in the web site as well. I wanted to
insure that the history of our heroes would be readily
available to students and others who need information quickly,
or who can not afford to go out and buy a book. Ultimately,
most of these publishers backed away after hearing this noting
that the web stories would hurt book sales--"Why would
people buy the book if they can read it free online."
Last
year Gary Toyn, author of an excellent biography on MOH
recipient George Whalen and Publisher for American Legacy
Media approached me on the same topic. Mr. Toyn was not
dismayed by the fact I wanted to keep the stories free online,
and has embarked on a multi-year, multi-book program of
publishing my stories. The first is now available. Based on my
web series and titled "Go For Broke," it is now
available in large paperback format from www.americanlegacymedia.com
for $15.95. (It is also available on Amazon.com if you prefer
to deal with them.)
If
you want an autographed copy, please send me a stamped,
self-addressed envelope with instructions on how you want your
book published. I have printed some attractive "From the
Desk of Doug Sterner" self-adhesive labels on which I can
write your requested message and sign and return it to you to
stick on the inside cover.
*****
Speaking
of BOOKS, Medal of Honor Recipient Frank Herda recently sent
me a copy of his own NEW BOOK, "CUP OF DEATH." This
is NOT one of your typical Medal of Honor books about war,
valor, and personal remembrances. This is a fiction work in
the genre of the "Harry Potter" series, targeted primarily
at 8 - 12 year old children, but an enjoyable read for adults
as well. Here is a different kind of Medal of Honor book you
can add to your collection (autographed of course by the
author).
For
More information visit Frank
Herda's Website.
|
 You
can download (in MS WORD) a full-color book containing the
citations for the top two levels of these awards for heroism in
Afghanistan or Iraq. This FREE book also includes photos of
each of the recipients.
A
similar book containing names, citations and photos of
the GWOT Silver Star recipients is being planned. We
have obtained all citations for awards to Navy and
Marine Corps personnel, and are simply awaiting
citations for Army and Air Force recipients. Initially I
had planned to release this book on April 1, but
postponed it to include these other citations.
|
SITE
NEWS
WWII DSC CITATIONS
GOING ONLINE
Since I began adding the citations for
the DSC, Navy Cross, and Air Force Cross, one of the most
common questions I have been asked is WHEN the WWII DSC
citations would be posted. To date, of the nearly 24,000
awards for the TOP LEVELS of US Military Awards, I've been
able to post more than 18,000. Primarily I need only about
1,500 (out of nearly 7,000) Navy Cross citations to finish
those, and nearly all of them are WWII awards.
The WWII DSC citations are my most
unfinished work, comprising some 4,000 citations yet to be
located and typed. Beginning on December 7, I will start
posting the WWII citations I've compiled, and a brief synopsis
for those I've not yet found. The listing will comprise as
complete (estimated at 99%) of all WWII DSC Awards as is
presently available anywhere.
On that note, the key to finishing these
is FUNDING. Virtually ALL of the needed citations (Both Navy
Cross and DSC) are available in Washington, D.C., but I have
been able to get them only by purchasing them from friends who
have themselves invested thousands of dollars to copy these
General Orders or Navy Yard Cards. This means that for as
little as about $5,000, this area could be completed and I can
turn my full attention to continuing to compile and post
Silver Star citations. For your contribution of $100, I can
acquire between 75 and 100 citations for heroes whose stories
might otherwise become lost. Please consider helping me to
finish the work on the DSC and Navy Cross citations by sending
whatever gift you can.
