 [Larger view] | United States of America's Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients: And Their Official Citations
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| Amazing Courage. These stories will move you. | |
| This book is one of the most powerful that I have ever read, though I must admit that I have not read each and every biography that this huge volume contains. It is more of a reference book, but is still enormously valuable. These individuals define patriotism, and will undoubtedly make you have new respect for America. To attempt to describe some of the things that these men did would not be enough. I had always considered myself a good American, even a great American but these stories will put anyone to shame. Even the citations themselves do not do true justice to the tremendous gallantry that these men displayed. Buy this book, and if you can't afford it locate a copy from a library. If you can't find it in a library do a search on the internet...The bottom line is that the actions of the thousands of men in this book must not go unrecognized. The inscription on the Congressional Medal of Honor reads "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepedity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." These men live up to every word. | |
| Excellent reference work that includes the latest recipients | |
| This volume is an excellent reference work that contains more than just the official citations of all Medal of Honor recipients, including those from the Somalia campaign. This work also contains a history of the Medal and how it evolved into is present incarnation, a listing of recipients by place of birth, and a listing of still living recipients. The citations themselves are divided by major conflicts, IE First World War, Second World War, Haitian Campaign,Philippine Insurrection, etc, or interim periods when individuals were awarded the Medal in times of peace. There is also an alphabetical listing of each recipient to make research on an individual recipient easier. The citations themselves range from well-detailed summaries of acts of bravery, to rather sparse descriptions. This difference in the citations illustrates the evolution of the Medal from its distinction as the only medal given for courage during the Civil War to its recognition as the ultimate decoration for bravery in later conflicts. Overall, this is a very useful tool for researching American military history. |
