Twenty-eight Medal of Honor recipients gather at ANC for National MOH Day

Photo By Rachel Larue | From left, Medal of Honor recipient William Swenson places the Citizen Service Before Self Medal around the neck of Alton Brieske during a ceremony to award the Citizen Service Before Self Honors to three civilians March 25, 2015, at the Women In Military Service For America Memorial, Arlington, Va. The Citizen Honors recipients were chosen by the living recipients of the Medal of Honor for performing, “extraordinary actions at the risk of their lives for others or have performed long term selfless service to the benefit of their community,” according to a handout from the organization. (JBM-HH PAO photo by Rachel Larue)  

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, VA, UNITED STATES

03.25.2015

Story by Jim Dresbach 

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va. - A solemn, respectful crowd, including a mixture of highly-decorated veterans and ordinary citizens, convened March 25 at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as 28 Medal of Honor recipients honored all past service members who earned the 152-year-old award.

The 2 p.m. wreath-laying was led by MOH recipients Bruce Crandall, Harold Fritz and Kenneth Stumpf. The trio was escorted by Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region and U.S. Army Military District of Washington Commanding General Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan.

Ceremonial support during the wreath laying was provided by The U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) Soldiers and The United States Army Continental Color Guard.

Following the tomb ceremony, the program moved indoors to the Women in Military Service For America Memorial auditorium where three citizens – two from Washington state and the other from Florida – were recognized with Citizens Service Before Self Honors awards for courage, sacrifice selflessness and patriotism by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Medal of Honor Day is always commemorated on March 25 – the first day the honor was awarded in 1863. MOH Day was officially recognized by Congress in 2007.

“Eight years ago, the recipients of our nation’s highest award for valor in combat decided that they wanted to leave a legacy which included recognizing ordinary Americans for performing extraordinary acts of courage and selfless service,” Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation President and CEO Ronald T. Rand explained to the crowd gathered for the awards. “The recipients wanted to demonstrate to people that you don’t have to go to combat and you don’t even have to wear the cloth of our country to be a hero that makes a difference in people’s lives.”

The three civilian honorees were Alton Isaac Brieske of Port St. Lucie, Florida, Jon Christopher Meis of Seattle, and Michael G. Reagan of Edmonds, Washington. Brieske rescued 92-year-old Salvatore Mancuso from a submerged car in a lake after Mancuso suffered a heart attack. Meis, a student-building monitor at Pacific University, pepper sprayed and subdued a gunman in June 2014, and Reagan, a Vietnam veteran, drew over 4,000 portraits of fallen service members for presentation to their families.

The Citizen’s Honor Program was comprised of Medal of Honor recipients, who received over 100 nominations of citizens’ acts of courage in 2014. The MOH recipients then personally select the honorees.

• Date Taken: 03.25.2015
• Date Posted: 04.02.2015 18:57
• Story ID: 159030
• Location: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, VA, US
• Hometown: EDMONDS, WA, US
• Hometown: PORT ST. LUCIE, FL, US
• Hometown: SEATTLE, WA, US