In the new Medal of Honor museum, courage lives in every room
The grand opening ceremony for the National Medal of Honor Museum went way beyond just a ribbon-cutting. On March 22, spectators gathered in Arlington, Texas, for performances by military brass bands and choirs. Fireworks transformed the night sky into a glittering galaxy. A platoon of drones created airborne images such as flying eagles and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Service members raised a version of the Stars and Stripes large enough to cover a tennis court. And for the ribbon-cutting itself, former president George W. Bush was on hand to use the giant scissors.
The VIP attendees were 31 of the 61 living recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor. Some were teary.
“The whole project is for them,” says Chris Cassidy, president and CEO of the museum’s foundation. The doors opened to the public on March 25, National Medal of Honor Day. For visitors, “Our hope with the Medal of Honor museum is to use the examples of this military courage such that it can transfer in a small way into somebody’s normal everyday life.”
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What makes someone courageous? The Monitor spoke with Chris Cassidy, one of the leaders of the National Medal of Honor Museum, about recipients of the U.S. award – and how available courage is to everyone.
The Monitor asked Mr. Cassidy, a former astronaut and retired Navy SEAL who was awarded a Bronze Star, about the museum’s mission. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Can you explain the significance of the Medal of Honor?
The Medal of Honor is our nation’s highest award for valor on the battlefield. It’s been around since 1861. There’s been 3,528 awards of that medal. But in the Civil War, it was the only medal. So the predominant number of that 3,500 is from the Civil War. Now, present day, there’s various layers of awards you can get in varying degrees. So it’s become really, really rare. The criteria is it has to be in a combat situation. It has to be on the battlefield. It has to be observed by at least two people.
It’s neither a war memorial nor a military museum, but is instead values- and biography-based. Can you tell us more about the values that inform the museum?
Courage, commitment, sacrifice, integrity, and citizenship, and patriotism. We have youth programs and adult programs that weave those values throughout the Medal of Honor stories. So using the stories, the examples of these gentlemen, and one lady – Mary Walker, Civil War surgeon – using those stories and exploring those values is, I think, our secret sauce.
What is the state of values of courage, sacrifice, and patriotism in today’s America compared to previous decades and earlier generations?
If you asked somebody our age back in the 1960s that question, they would have a different answer. If you ask somebody your and my age in the ’80s, they would have a different answer. But the more I reflect on it, the more I think people are just people. Technology that we have today with social media might influence things a little differently than, say, the radio did in 1945 or whatever. But at the end of the day, human beings innately want to do good for the world and be good human beings to each other.
There’s always exceptions to that, and those exceptions are often the ones that get highlighted. There’s also … people that are just amazing and doing positive things. Feeding people that can’t eat, and getting water to people that can’t get clean water, and putting luggage in the bin for an elderly person who can’t do it on the airplane. So I don’t think that values are any different. I think it’s just important for all of us to, every now and then, check in on those values and make sure that we’re saying our personal compass is dialed in to north.
The museum emphasizes that it’s honoring ordinary Americans who took extraordinary action in the service of others. Can you describe the qualities and values that these recipients had learned or been raised with that prepared them for that moment?
In the capacity of this job, I’ve gotten to know several of them pretty well. And it’s common [for them] to say, “I was no different than anybody else. I didn’t like English class or I loved English class, or I played football, or I tried to play soccer and got cut from the team, whatever.” They just have the same stories that we all do.
In fact, Gen. [Patrick Henry] Brady – I gotta attribute this quote to him – he’s a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He says that we all have the same size bucket with courage in it, and it’s always full, and you can reach into that bucket anytime you want and take stuff out of it and it fills back up. It’s a choice that you have, everybody has, to reach into the bucket and use courage. So, it’s available to all of us. Fear is an emotion, courage is a decision.
Courtesy of National Medal of Honor Museum
Can you describe one or two of the most striking stories of extraordinary courage that are represented in the museum?
The one that really gets me is this guy named Tibor Rubin. He was a young kid, prisoner of war in a Nazi concentration camp, inspired by the GIs that liberated his camp. Then he comes of age and says, “I want to be a GI.” He joins the United States military, finds himself in Korea. [He’s] captured by the Chinese and he ends up in a Chinese concentration camp. His resilience and bravery and knowledge from that existence [in a Nazi camp] as a kid inspired the people around him. He kept the positive energy. … Then [he] lived a full life back in the United States. To me, it’s like holy moly. He was not just once, but two times a prisoner of war in unbelievable circumstances.
You mentioned earlier that there’s only one woman, Mary Edwards Walker, who’s been awarded the medal. She was a civilian during the Civil War. Why haven’t there been other female recipients?
Women in the military have been essential for a long time. There’s a really cool military women’s memorial in D.C., by the way. It’s just over the river in Arlington, Virginia, near the cemetery. It highlights women’s contribution to our nation’s military. Women just weren’t in combat roles for many years, and now they are. So it’s just a matter of time before we have a second and a third and a fourth [award recipient]. I actually heard about Harriet Tubman … there’s a significant movement to get her the Medal of Honor.
What the people that you’re honoring in this museum have in common is their willingness to put others ahead of self. You could say these are really at heart extraordinary acts of love, aren’t they?
Love is the great word. There’s one Medal of Honor recipient, Clint Romesha. His action was in Afghanistan. He’s got a quote that I love. He goes into the whole battle and talks about what was going on. They’re outnumbered, outgunned, bleak, dire situation, tactical disadvantage. They’re down low, and the enemy’s all up high. And in the end, he says, “You know, we survived that day not because we hated the enemy, but because we loved each other more.” I think that’s so beautifully said.
