37 Courageous People Who Were Honored For Their Stubborn Valor

An African-American soldier named Vernon Baker received his belated Medal of Honor in 1997 for crawling to a Nazi outpost in Italy and taking out the 5 Germans in the outpost and then throwing a grenade and killing 2 more Germans and then rescuing a wounded American soldier.

27. Private First Class James Anderson Jr. sacrificed his life by smothering a grenade in Vietnam with his body on Feb. 28, 1967. He was 20. In doing so he became the first African American US Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

28. An American Soldier named David Bleak was given the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Korean War. He killed 5 Chinese soldiers, 4 with his bare hands, while giving medical aid to his comrades despite being shot.

29. Peter Lemon was a Canadian volunteer in the US Army, who won the Medal of Honor for actions performed while being stoned on marijuana in Vietnam.

30. During the Civil War, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker stood on the Union front lines for nearly two years, including the wake of the bloody Battle of Chickamauga. She is the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.

US Navy SEAL Mike Thornton earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam for saving the life of Thomas Norris, another SEAL, who would also later receive the Medal of Honor for a previous rescue mission, making it the first time in a century where a Medal of Honor recipient saved the life of another Medal of Honor recipient.

32. Herbert Pililaau was the first Native Hawaiin to be given the Medal of Honor. The day after he gave his life to save his comrades, they found his body surrounded by 40 dead Koreans, whom he killed using only his trench knife.

33. Union artillery officer Alonzo Cushing was killed after being wounded twice during the Battle of Gettysburg, refusing evacuation from his position atop Cemetery Ridge during Pickett’s Charge. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor 151 years later, the longest wait for any recipient.

34. An American soldier named Humbert Roque Versace put up such a fight in captivity that the Viet Cong executed him out of frustration. He was last heard singing “God Bless America”. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

35. Submarine Commander Eugene Fluckey is credited with honor of the most tonnage sunk in World War 2, including a Carrier. He also once led his men on land to blow up a train. He got 4 Navy Crosses, the Medal of Honor, his boat got several Presidential Unit citations, but unfortunately none of his men got a Purple Heart.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the son of the famous president, was the only General to land in the first wave of the D-Day landings, despite having a heart condition that forced him to walk with a cane. He succumbed to a heart attack a month later and was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.

37. Flying Officer Lloyd Allan Trigg was a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross. His award is unique, as it was awarded on evidence solely provided by the enemy, for an action in which there were no surviving Allied witnesses to corroborate his gallantry.