WASHINGTON–The stories sound straight out of Hollywood: Marine, alone, wins treacherous battle against more than 30 enemy soldiers; Marine defeats the enemy with only a few grenades and a rifle; Marine survives four-hour shootout with the help of only a few riflemen, the enemy force much larger.
These stories are all real. They’re moments that earned men Medals of Honor, the highest military decoration.
“It changes your life,” retired Pfc. Hector Cafferata Jr. said in a phone interview. Helaunched grenades and defeated the enemy fighting solo in the Korean War. Cafferata didn’t want to talk much about that.
“What is there to say?” the 82-year-old retired Marine said. “You don’t know if it’s a curse or if it’s a help.”
The courageous few who receive gold stars on blue ribbons around their necks don’t seek the spotlight. It finds them.
When retired Cpl. Dakota Meyer receives his Medal of Honor as reported by the Marine Corps Times, he’ll become one of just 16 living Marine recipients. It’s been 41 years since a Marine earned the top award. Among all branches fewer only 84 Medal recipients are still living.
Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry is the most recent Medal of Honor recipient. Despite wounds in both legs, Petry, fighting in Afghanistan, picked up a grenade and launched it out of harms way, sacrificing his hand to save the life of a fellow Ranger. Petry sees the 2008 event as just another moment in the life of a combat solider.
“I didn’t sacrifice anything more than anyone else who is out there,” he told Army News Service July 12 when President Barack Obama awarded him the prestigious medal.
Meyer, who sources say is next to receive the Medal of Honor, spoke with Marine Corps Times in November 2010 about the event that earned him his pending award. In a battle in Afghanistan, Meyer went on foot into enemy terrority to save four friends after pilots decided it was to dangerous to fly in for a rescue. The men were dead by the time Meyer arrived.
Meyer told Marine Corps Times he felt “like the furthest thing from a hero” because he did not find his fellow Marines alive.
Like many veterans, some of the Medal of Honor recipients prefer to keep their award private, avoiding publicity about the life-changing events that earned them military fame.
Col. (ret.) Harvey “Barney” Barnum works at Navy Reserve Affairs. But in 1965, he was in Vietnam. His heroism there earned him a Medal of Honor.
“After the company commander died in my arms, I ran out and got the radio from the dead operator and strapped it on myself and took command of the company,” Barnum said during a 2007 interview at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.
Barnum – who was a lieutenant at the time – was the fourth Marine to receive the Medal of Honor. After 27 years of service in the Marine Corps, Barnum retired and took a job with the Defense Department before moving to Navy Reserve Affairs.
On what inspired his actions in Vietnam, Barnum said: “There’s no fury unleashed when a Marine hears someone in his company is hurt.”