America's North Shore Journal

When Gibson arrived on scene, he inspected the small cache of weapons retrieved from the vehicles and noticed a piece of Dunham’s Kevlar leaning against the wall of a nearby building. Once he realized what exactly he had found, he and the Marines in the area scoured the street for any scraps of the Kevlar they could find.

Five years have passed since Dunham’s selfless sacrifice to save the lives of his fellow Marines earned him the Medal of Honor and a Navy destroyer bearing his name.

As a general rule, the Silver Star is faster and requires less paperwork to award. The Medal of Honor is often an upgraded award from the Silver Star. Keeping that in mind, here are a few Marine Corps Silver Star winners who might be the “Marine to be named later”.

The attendant announced that he wasn’t going to award drink coupons for that answer, telling the passengers that “naming an Idol winner was not worth a free drink,” Shelton recalled.

“He concluded his announcement with the question: ‘What’s wrong with our country when out of 150 passengers, only one can name a Medal of Honor recipient, but 43 can name an American Idol winner?’”

A photo illustration of the Zumwalt-class destroyer USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001)

On June 2, 2008 the President of the United States will present the Medal of Honor to the family of Ross McGinnis. He will speak about courage and sacrifice. His fellow heroes in Valhalla and Fiddler’s Green know all about that.

It may be the the President of the United States will also talk about redemption. Ross McGinnis was once a troubled youth on a clear path to nowhere. Then, he chose to become a soldier in the United States Army. He chose to become a warrior.

This young man, this ordinary young man, found a place that gave him a path, people who became comrades and friends, and he found a time that for all eternity became his time.

God bless you, Ross McGinnis.

President Bush has announced that Spc. Ross McGinnis will posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony June 2, two weeks shy of what would have been his 21st birthday.

Spc. Ross McGinnis, who was killed Dec. 4, 2006, in Iraq when he smothered a grenade with his body, will receive the Medal of Honor, sources told Army Times.