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Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients
Congressional Research Service The Library of Congress
Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Order Code RL30011
Medal of Honor Recipients: 1979-2003
Updated January 20, 2003
Glenda Richardson
Information Research Specialist - Information Research Division
Medal of Honor Recipients: 1979-2003
Summary
The Medal of Honor is the nations highest award for military valor. Since its inception in 1863, 3,459 Medals of Honor have been awarded to a total of 3,440 individuals (there have been 19 double recipients). In 1979, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee issued the committee print, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863- 1978, which lists recipients and provides the full text of the citations describing the actions which resulted in the awarding of the Medal. This report describes and discusses changes to the list of recipients of the Medal since the release of the committee print. For further information, see CRS Report 95-519, Medal of Honor: History and Issues. This report will be updated as new recipients are named.
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 1
Medals of Honor by Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Smith, Andrew J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... . 2
Spanish-American War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Roosevelt, Theodore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . 3
World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 3
Stowers, Freddie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
World War II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Carter, Edward A., Jr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Casamento, Anthony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Davila, Rudolph B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Day, James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Fox, John R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Hajiro, Barney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Hasemoto, Miko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Hayashi, Joe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Hayashi, Shizuya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Inouye, Daniel K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
James,Willy F., Jr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Kobashigawa, Yeiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Kuroda, Robert T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Moto, Kaoru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Muranaga, Kiyoshi, K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Nakae, Masato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Nakamine, Shinyei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Nakamura, William K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Nishimoto, Joe M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Ohata, Allan M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Okubo, James. K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Okutso, Yukio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Ono, Frank H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Otani, Kazuo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Rivers, Ruben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Sakato, George T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Salomon, Ben L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Tanouye, Ted T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Thomas, Charles L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Urban, Matt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Wai, Francis B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Watson, George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Vietnam War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Benavidez, Roy P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Cook, Donald, G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Freeman, Ed W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ingram, Robert R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Pitsenbarger, William H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Rascon, Alfred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Swanson, Jon E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Unknown Soldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Versace, Humbert R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Persian Gulf War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 31
Somalia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Gordon, Gary I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Shughart, Randall D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Restoration of Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 33
Chapman, Amos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cody, William F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Dixon, William . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Doshier, James D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Woodall, William H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Renunciation of Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . 34
Liteky, Charles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Contacts for Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Medal of Honor Recipients: 1979-2003
Introduction
The Congressional Research Service receives numerous requests for lists of recipients of the Medal of Honor (MoH), the nations highest award for military bravery. Since its inception in 1863, 3,459 Medals of Honor have been awarded to a total of 3,440 individuals (there have been 19 double recipients). In 1979, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee issued the committee print, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1978, which lists recipients and provides the full text of the citations describing the actions which resulted in the awarding of the MoH. Since the release of this document, there have been several changes in the list of recipients of this award.
This report lists those changes by military action and provides the full text of their official citations. The citations were provided by the military awards offices of the respective services. A list of these offices is provided at the end of this report. In some instances, Congress approved legislation to remove statutory time limits in order for the Medal to be awarded. Where this has occurred, the legislation is cited.
This report will be updated as changes in the list of recipients occur. The FY1996 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 104-106, Section 524) provided for the review of records relating to Asian-Americans and Native American Pacific Islanders who received Distinguished Service Crosses or Navy Crosses for service during World War II. This legislation also waived the time limit to allow the President to award the MoH to 22 Asian-Americans. (Due to a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center, some military personnel records were destroyed for these individuals. Records were reconstructed from auxiliary sources. For this reason, data on the place where the individual entered service and birth information is not always available.) These individuals are Rudolph B. Davila, Barney F. Hajiro, Mikio Hasemoto, Joe Hayashi, Shizuya Hayashi, Daniel K. Inouye, Yeiki Kobashigawa, Yukio Okutsu, Robert T. Kuroda, Kaoru Moto, Kiyoshi K. Muranaga, Masato Nakae, Shinyei Namamine, William K. Nakamura, Joe M. Nishimoto, James K. Okubo, Allen M. Ohata, Frank Ono, Kazuo Otani, George T. Sakato, Ted T. Tanouye, and Francis B. Wai.
The FY1997 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 104-201, Section 561, September 23, 1996) waived the time limit to allow the President to award the MoH to seven African-American soldiers for their heroic acts during World War II. (Due to a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center, some military personnel record were destroyed for these individuals. Records were reconstructed from auxiliary sources. For this reason, the place indicated after the date of birth is the home of record at the time the individual entered the military, and not necessarily the place of birth. Data on the place where the individual entered service is not available.) These individuals are Vernon J. Baker, Edward A. Carter, Jr., John R. Fox, Willy F. James, Jr., Ruben Rivers, Charles L. Thomas, and George Watson. For historical information and a more detailed account of congressional and other efforts to award the MoH, see CRS Report 95-519, Medal of Honor: History and Issues, by David F. Burrelli. An asterisk (*) indicates those individuals who received their medal posthumously.
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