Tuesday is National Medal of Honor Day, a time to reflect on the extraordinary bravery and sacrifice of the fewer than 4,000 Americans who have received the nation’s highest military honor.
Among them is Sgt. First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, the first Black medal recipient for actions since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Cashe, who grew up in Oviedo, Florida, repeatedly ran into a burning vehicle in Iraq in 2005 to save fellow soldiers, suffering fatal burns.
Tuesday is National Medal of Honor Day
He was posthumously awarded the medal in 2021 after years of advocacy by those who served with him.
Chris Cassidy, CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, talked about the rare award.
“The Medal of Honor has been around since 1861 and since that time, there’s been 3,528 awards of the medal,” Cassidy explained. “There’s 61 of those folks living today.”
Cashe is one of 51 medal recipients from Florida. This year, the day holds special significance, as the National Medal of Honor Museum opens its doors in Arlington, Texas, offering a permanent home to the stories of these heroes. Cassidy noted the museum features a broad swath of stories, from the Civil War to the present day, and from all branches of service.
The new museum features more than 100,000 square feet of space, about one-third dedicated to exhibition galleries. Cassidy added visitors can learn about the stories of Medal of Honor recipients, including those from their own states.
“The museum is focused on those people, human beings,” Cassidy emphasized. “It’s not a war museum or a military history museum, or a place where you see a ton of airplanes and tanks. There’s other great places for that. This museum is storytelling about amazing Americans that did something when the country needed them to.”
Congress established National Medal of Honor Day in 1990 to recognize the bravery and sacrifice of the medal recipients. For those unable to visit the museum in person, its website, mohmuseum.org offers resources to explore the stories of the heroes.
