National Medal of Honor Museum opening: Some names you may not expect
The Brief
The National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington spans 100,000-square-feet in the city's entertainment district.
The museum houses the name of each Medal of Honor recipient.
The museum opens to the public on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
ARLINGTON, Texas - A new museum devoted to telling the stories of those who have received the nation's highest military honor is opening this coming week in Texas.
The National Medal of Honor Museum is set to open Tuesday in Arlington, just west of Dallas. It highlights the lives and service of Medal of Honor recipients from the Civil War to the global war on terrorism.
The Medal of Honor is awarded by Congress for risking one's life in combat beyond the call of duty.
By the numbers
Through the front doors, visitors are greeted with the "Ring of Valor," which contains the names of all 3,528 Medal of Honor recipients - the military's highest distinction.
Big picture view
As visitors move upstairs, the first exhibit they'll encounter is "Moments of Action."
The exhibit is an immersive experience, transporting people to the battlefields where these awards are earned.
After leaving the Ring of Valor, visitors will have a chance to see the "Rails to Rotors" exhibit that highlights the equipment and machinery that troops have used throughout history.
Among its exhibits is one of the largest artifacts in the museum, a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter.
They were used in "dustoff" missions which are credited with saving thousands of lives during the Vietnam War.
What they're saying
"They were basically helicopter ambulances," Greg Waters, the museum's director of curatorial arts, told FOX 4 Dallas. "When things went bad, they would send out the call for dustoff and that's when General Brady would go out and rescue whoever needed rescuing."
The helicopter is so large that it was lifted into the museum by a crane before the walls were finished.
One of the more expansive exhibits in the museum is the "More Than a Medal" exhibit.
Inside, visitors will find memorabilia and personal effects that let visitors put faces to the nation's most prestigious military award.
"That's what this place is," museum President and CEO Chris Cassidy said. "It's a place for the stories of those Medal of Honor recipients."
Inside the exhibit, visitors can get up close and personal with real medals that have been loaned to the museum for display.
"The Medals of Honor themselves are the crown jewel of our collection," Waters said.
Five pillars are integrated into the building's design, representing each branch of the armed forces.
Then, once the sun goes down, a beam of light will shine into the sky.
Officials call it a "perpetual" light, ensuring none of the stories, inside, are ever lost to darkness.
Jack Jacobs, a retired U.S. Army colonel who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War, told The Associated Press that he wants museum visitors to realize the recipients aren't "spectacular supermen," but regular people who "embody the kinds of values that are really important."
"Really grand things, not just in combat, but in everyday life ... are all accomplished by ordinary people who come to the conclusion that something has to be done and they are going to do it," Jacobs said.
When his unit was ambushed by the Viet Cong on March 9, 1968, Jacobs took charge after his commander was seriously wounded. Despite being wounded in the head by shrapnel and bleeding heavily, Jacobs reorganized the company and repeatedly ran through enemy fire to rescue the wounded, saving the lives of a U.S. adviser and 13 soldiers.
Jacobs, now 79, said he lost a lot of friends in the battle.
"You really do wear the award for all of the people who can't wear the award," he said. Other notable recipients of the National Medal of Honor include actor Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated American combat soldiers in history. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of the Colmar Pocket in France.
Alvin York was awarded the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, killing 28 enemy soldiers, and capturing 132 others during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918.
Meanwhile, Desmond Doss, a conscientious combat medic who refused to carry a weapon, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Battle of Okinawa, where he saved 75 men without ever firing a shot.
John Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism during the Battle of Guadalcanal, where he single-handedly held off an enemy attack. He was later killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
In addition, Smedley Butler was awarded the Medal of Honor twice during his career, once for his actions in the Philippines and again for his efforts in Haiti.
Brian Thacker received the Medal of Honor for his bravery in a firefight in Afghanistan, where he demonstrated extraordinary leadership in saving his team.
William Carney was the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, awarded for his actions during the Battle of Fort Wagner in 1863, where he bravely carried the American flag through enemy lines despite being severely wounded.
Another exhibit lets visitors speak with Medal of Honor recipients and ask them questions. There are over 60 recipients who are still living.
"We sit down recipients and we ask them hundreds of questions, over the course of several days with lots of cameras trained on them," Waters said. "We use AI to match the question with the most appropriate answer. We don't use AI to put words in their mouths. So all of the answers are the words the recipients actually said."
The backstory
More than 20 cities tried to attract the museum. In the end, it came down to Arlington and Denver as finalists.
Arlington was chosen because it's centrally located, giving easier access for all Americans to visit.
The Source
This story was reported from Los Angeles. Information in this article comes from FOX 4 Dallas reporting and their tour of the museum and interviews with the museum officials. The Associated Press contributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Dominion Post
2 hours ago
- Dominion Post
Vietnam memorial at MHS undergoes re-visioning
It's a roll call for the ages at Morgantown High School. One including Thomas 'Tommy' Bennett, Roger Bise, Major Dalton, Robert Hoskins, Howard Jackson and Dave Kovac. Carroll Lilly, James Messenger, Charles Nowell Jr. and Gordon Perry, also. You can add John Pickett, William Ross Jr., Ron Rowsey and Jack Wade Scarborough Jr. in there, too – along with William Sisler, Joseph Slavenksy Jr., Dean Spencer III and Delmas Townsend – to complete the eternal class. Those 18 names have something else in common, besides being graduates of the red-bricked school on Wilson Avenue. All paid the ultimate price in Vietnam. Kovac, who was popular and nice to the kids who weren't cool, joined the Marines right after graduation. He was killed in an ambush in the early days of the fighting. Lilly had been an established fighter pilot when he was shot down – he remains listed as missing in action to this day, as his body was never recovered. Bennett was a conscientious objector who died as a combat medic while rescuing buddies in heavy fire. He would be bestowed posthumously with the Medal of Honor, the military's highest recognition for bravery. With the help of the MHS Key Club — classmates Bennett and Kovac were ranking members — the school put up a memorial years ago with the names etched in marble that sits along the side of the school. Over the years, though, unattended shrubbery took over the monument, obscuring the names. 'Yeah, we needed to do something about that,' said teacher Jenny Secreto, who has long championed the fallen, particularly Bennett, who regularly gets a unit in her English honors classes. 'I'm not sure a lot of our kids know the monument exists,' she said. Now, just in time for Flag Day, those names are as visible as they've ever been. Secreto enlisted graphic artists at Morgantown's City Neon to come up with an additional design element to better showcase the 18. A donation from the Key Club and proceeds from Kona Ice sales paid for the project. The new-look monument comes in the form of an additional frame to house a gallery of yearbook photos of the students, who, with the exception of Lilly, made the trip home from Southeast Asia in a flag-draped coffin. The gallery is printed on a sheet of polyurethane-type composites to better withstand rain and snow, said Rudy Hoffert, a design manager at City Neon. 'Of course, we feel good about being able to help,' Hoffert said. 'We're a Morgantown company, and so were the people and their families that we get to help honor. And when the gallery needs replacing, we can just do a new one and slide it right back in. It'll last a long time, though.' Secreto, though, wants that collective, composite memory and acknowledgement to last forever. After all, the teacher said: it's a time-bridge. 'I tell our kids today that these guys sat in the same classrooms,' she said. They roamed the same hallways, took lunch in the same cafeteria and sat in the same bleachers at Pony Lewis Field on football Friday nights, Secreto said. 'And look at what they were facing in their time. They were so young – just like you.'
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
A Michigan educator and Medal of Honor recipient's life lessons
Jim McCloughan returned from Vietnam, a war in which he didn't intend to fight, and nearly a half-century later, was awarded the Medal of Honor. It brought him public notoriety and an unexpected, heartfelt letter from a stranger. The message added insight into the difference a person's actions can make to others. McCloughan's story, which the onetime Army medic is set to tell the evening of June 13 as the featured speaker at a military ball in Detroit to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday, may offer some insight into what it's like to be a soldier and how to face life's challenges. McCloughan said his speech, which he summarized Wednesday for the Free Press, teaches some Army history and offers lots of statistics, two things you'd expect from a retired educator and coach. It also may add some perspective to the debates divided Americans are now having about the role of the military at home and abroad, just as they did in the late '60s, when protesters also took to the streets. "The Army goes and protects freedom and the Constitution wherever they are asked to," he said. "And we're a very compassionate military, because we go places and fight for people who can't fight for their own independence." In 2017, McCloughan was awarded the Medal of Honor, America's highest military award, as part of an unusual process that involved not just one, but two presidents — Barack Obama and Donald Trump — and an act of Congress. His Medal of Honor citation describes three days of remarkable courage. The Army medic ran across an open field under fire to reach and rescue a wounded soldier. Later, that same day, he sprinted toward two soldiers under attack and was hit by shrapnel from an exploding rocket-propelled grenade. Yet, he still pulled both men to safety — and treated others so they could be evacuated. The next day, he was wounded a second time while offering aid to two soldiers. On the third day of fighting, he continued risking his own life to treat and save soldiers. Born in South Haven, McCloughan grew up in Bangor, graduated from Bangor High, where he lettered in four sports, and from Olivet College, now the University of Olivet, northeast of Battle Creek. In 1968, he was in his early 20s and eager to start his life. He had a job lined up as a teacher and coach in South Haven. Instead, he received a draft notice that sent him to fight in southeast Asia. School officials, he said, made their best case for a draft exemption: The school already lost seven teachers, and without him to coach, the students would have to go without sports teams. The request was denied. "My grandpa, he fought in World War I; my dad, in World War II; I had an uncle who was in the service at the end of World War II but didn't battle until Korea," he said. "And, I guess, I settled into the fact that it looks like I'm going to have to change my attitude and plan and get ready to be a soldier." McCloughan — who is athletic, and just over 5 feet tall — said he committed himself to doing his best to serve his country, to keep his fellow fighting soldiers alive and to come home in one piece. By the Army's count, he saved 11 lives, including a Vietnamese interpreter. For his valor, he received several awards — including the Combat Medical Badge, two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars for his valor — and after two years in the Army, was allowed to go home. That's where his war story would have ended, if not, he said, for his lieutenant who doggedly urged the Army to recognize what he did to save other soldiers. The officer did not feel his Bronze Star Medals were enough recognition. The officer kept pressing and, according to McCloughan, Obama's then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter eventually agreed. The five-year award nomination window, however, had closed. To allow McCloughan to be awarded the medal, members of Congress, including former U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Ted Cruz of Texas, worked together to pass the statutory changes. By then, Trump had been elected president. The new president, in his first awarding of the honor, hung the medal around McCloughan's neck. Trump described the man his platoon called Doc as "a veteran who went above and beyond the call of duty." More: West Michigan man awarded Medal of Honor for Vietnam War bravery Since then, the former medic has traveled the state and the nation, extoling the virtues of military service and millions of veterans. There are now only 61 living Medal of Honor recipients. McCloughan has thrown out ceremonial first pitches at baseball stadiums, sung for audiences at cemeteries in which veterans are buried, and helped raise money for Gold Star Families, relatives of service members killed while serving. And if his speech is anything like his Free Press interview, it includes humor and humility. He joked to the Free Press, for instance, that when he and his wife found out that even generals salute Medal of Honor awardees, he told his wife, Chérie, they should make her a general. She replied: It didn't matter what rank she was, she wasn't going to salute him. Still, McCloughan said, the medal also belongs to the soldiers who also risked their lives and the many who lost them. And in some ways, it represents how everyone faces adversity, their own version of Vietnam, he called it. How folks respond can make a difference not just in the moment, but into the future. To explain, McCloughan told a story about a heartfelt letter he received from a young man whom he had never met, but tracked him down to let him know how he had unknowingly made a big difference in his life. The letter writer told McCloughan he saved his grandfather. As a result, the stranger explained that his grandfather could return from the war, and, within a year, give birth to a daughter, who turned out to be his mom. Then, in 1991, the letter writer was born. And he, too, had just become a parent, with a newborn baby boy. McCloughan said he added: "This Sunday, I get to celebrate Father's Day because of you." Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Life lessons from Jim McCloughan, a teacher and Medal of Honor recipient
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Grace Ann Kubofcik, Howard County government civic watchdog, dies
Grace Ann Kubofcik, a Howard County government civic watchdog, died of a pulmonary blood clot June 9 at Howard County General Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 83. 'She paid close attention to social, economic and environmental justice,' said former Howard County Executive Elizabeth Bobo. 'She had a deep devotion to public policy in our government. She never sought attention and was one of my dearest friends.' Born in the Bronx, New York, she was the daughter of Robert Douglas, assistant comptroller of Rockefeller Center and Grace Douglas, an executive secretary and bookkeeper. She was a graduate of Moravian Academy for Girls in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and earned a bachelor's degree at Wagner College in Staten Island. She joined the Social Security Administration and worked in its Brooklyn office and met her future husband, James 'Jim' Kubofcik, while they were volunteering at an information booth at the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing, New York. They married in 1966. They moved to Maryland and settled in Ellicott City when her husband took a post at Social Security headquarters in Woodlawn. Ms. Kubofcik immersed herself in the community groups and joined the PTA and League of Women Voters. She became a regular presence at government meetings and soon became a citizen expert in zoning matters. State Del. M. Courtney Watson, who represents Ellicott City, said, 'Grace was a straight-shooter with a smile. She told you like it was. She was upfront while being kind and caring. 'You could count on Grace for a seasoned opinion. She was generous with her time in helping newly elected persons. She explained past history for decisions and why they were made,' Ms. Watson said. Friends recalled her as a knowledgeable observer of Howard County government who was well-read and well-informed. In 2019, she was part of a group of Howard County residents who lined up along the side of Little Patuxent Parkway to call for affordable housing options in downtown Columbia. She joined the group, Full Spectrum Housing, which called for more affordable housing. Ms. Kubofcik said Columbia should be the site of a range of housing options at different price points. Eugene 'Gene' Clark, chief of staff for Maryland legislator, dies Thomas Nicholas Marudas, Baltimore harbor urban planner, dies Iris Reeves, former Baltimore City councilmember, dies Donald Warren Richardson, Richardson Farms co-owner, dies Ed Andrews III, Harford County attorney and decorated Vietnam War veteran, dies 'This is the urban core in Howard County; we don't have another one,' Ms. Kubofcik said in a Baltimore Sun article. 'It needs to have an opportunity for those who support us,' — such as teachers, restaurant workers and nurses, all of whom might not make enough money to afford a condo downtown.' 'She was a formidable policy wonk,' said Sang Oh, an attorney who often opposed her. 'But I respected her.' Ms. Kubofcik spent time in her backyard where she fed the birds. She also took vacations in the Outer Banks with her grandchildren. She captained women's tennis doubles teams and, more recently, played bocce. A celebration of life is being planned. Survivors include her husband of nearly 59 years, James 'Jim' Kubofcik, a retired Social Security Administration executive; two sons, Mark Kubofcik, of Sunshine in Montgomery County and Joseph Kubofcik, of Catonsville; and four grandchildren. Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at and 410-332-6570.
