CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS

by Kieran Doherty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1998

The most astounding information in this entry in the Collective Biographies series is not that there have been a total of 3,420 medals awarded as the ""nation's highest military honor"" for bravery (11 of whom are covered in this volume), but that only one woman, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, received one, in 1865. In 1916, an Army review panel struck her name from the roll of Medal recipients because she was not ""a sworn member of the military."" Only in 1977 did the Army Board of Correction of Military Records determine ""that if Walker had not been a woman she would have been commissioned as an army officer in 1861"" and recommended that her medal be restored. Doherty recounts the bravery and patriotism often other recipients, from Jacob Parrott, a young Union Army soldier, to Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart, two members of the elite Delta Force who died in Somalia in 1993. The collection also includes William Carney, the first African-American recipient, and Hiroshi Miyamura, a Japanese-American hero of the Korean War. Despite the author's wish to honor those who fought bravely, some readers will wonder what makes a person risk all for country, regardless of loved ones back home.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Enslow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1997

Categories: CHILDREN'S