The United States Post Office is yet again honouring another group of heroes awarded the Medal of Honor!

Many months ago I brought readers a few stories in this space about the US Post's honoring MOH recipient's who were awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism back in WW ll. The post office produced a four page commemorative booklet containing 20 actual first class stamps. Half had an image of the current navy and half an image of the current army Medals of  Honor. There were no price values marked on any of the stamps, and regardless of the rates down the road, each will be honoured as a first class stamp whenever used. 

While  over 16 MILLION would serve during that conflict, only 424 of these brave men and women went on to be awarded the MOH, and each has their name listed within this booklet of stamps. 

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On Veterans Day last November 11th, over 500 arrived to witness the unveiling of the new stamps (shown above)  at Washington, at the WW ll Memorial. Most in the audience waiting till the hour long ceremony was concluded before meeting and greeting with, and no doubt having the honour to shake hands with, and probably get autographs from the four Medal of Honor recipients who participated in the ceremony.

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Above is  a portion of all the names listed in the commemorative booklet.  Note Charles MacGillivary's name, a MOH recipient from the battle of the Bulge. That is him with Congressman JFK presenting him with the game ball from Fenway Park after a game  in 1945. John C Morgan came to Canada from the US to join up for the war when the US refused to enlist him because he had earlier broken his neck. The good doctors in Canada forgot to ask if he had previously done such a silly thing, took him on and trained him and sent him off to war. Shortly thereafter the Americans entered the war, he was permitted to switch back over to the US military and later earned his MOH. Doug Munro from Vancouver BC, pictured at right is the only MOH recipient in the history of the US Coast Guards and was killed in action at Guadalcanal. 

While the search engine at my site allows you to look for more info on all these heroes and plenty more, you can start to re-read about the above  at the following links...

The earlier stamps... 

http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/wednesday-and-friday-blogs/did-the-us-post-inadvertentlystamp-out-an-injustice-of-november-11th

and at...     www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/wednesday-and-friday-blogs/16-million-wore-the-american-uniform-in-ww11-only-464-would-earn-the-medal-ofhonor-folks-that-is-one-in-every-34482-men-and-women-who-served

 Sgt MacGillivary... 

http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/wednesday-and-friday-blogs/another-medal-of-honor-mystery-solved-in-canada-part-2 

John Morgan ...

http://www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/wednesday-and-friday-blogs/declaired-4f-unfit-for-duty-so-he-earns-a-medal-of-honor

Doug Munro... 
www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/wednesday-and-friday-blogs/the-united-states-coast-guard-continues-to-show-its-incredible-respect-and-admiration-for-canadian-born-medal-of-honor-man-douglas-munro

This Saturday, July 26th, for my 65th birthday I am quite excited to announce that at the Amphitheatre at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia the US Post will be unveiling another set of commemorative stamps. This time 13 heroes will have their images on the front cover and 145 men in all, will be listed within the booklet of 20 stamps, all being recipients from the fighting days of Korea. There were 6.8 million in US uniform during the Korean conflict.

(I can hardly wait to see what they will be doing for my 70th. (hehe)

There is not a whole lot on the net yet but I am sure there will be lots on Saturday. But I have found an image of the new cover as shown here.   More information will be noted in this space about this stamp issue next week.  

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One of the heroes of Korea is of course Colonel Lewis  Millett and much about him has appeared in these blogs. Serving in the National Guard at the beginning of WW ll, he found that the US would not be entering the war, so he came to Canada, signed up and got trained and sent off to the England to serve. He would later switch over to the US service after they joined and went on to earn a considerable number of awards culminating with the  MOH later in Korea. His name of course will be among the 145 names within the stamp booklet. 

More can be found by searching this site and perhaps a start with...  

www.canadianmedalofhonor.com/wednesday-and-friday-blogs/of-the-40-million-or-more-that-have-served-in-us-uniform-only-one-apparently-went-from-the-rank-of-private-to-colonel-got-court-marshalled-along-the-way-served-in-military-services-of-three-different-countries-fought-in-three-wars-and-was-awarded-a

You can see the most impressive group of medal ribbons the Colonel is quite proudly wearing above. A few years ago I was quite honoured to be allowed to not only attend his funeral in California, but also in visiting several times with his son, a war veteran in his own right, and his daughter in law. At their home I was allowed to hold his medals but the darn family made be go through their medal detector before I left. hehe. Speaking with them a few days ago about the unveiling and the further honor to the Colonel and the others from Korea with the stamps, they were surprised to hear the news. Apparently no official at the PO or elsewhere thought it nice to give them notice. 

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I will close with this image of Arlington Virginia and western portion of Washington DC. At the bottom left the letter "A" seems to have gotten lost in the mail. But you can just see the right edge of it pointing out the location of the Amphitheatre at Arlington where the stamp unveiling will take place on Saturday. The letter "B"  points out the location of the burial spot for the several Unknown Soldiers. It is here that the British plaque for the 4 American Victoria Cross recipients, being sent off  from England may well ultimately end up. (I am still following that story and will bring more as it is learned. "C" shows the Memorial Bridge and "D" is the famous Potomac River so often mentioned in Civil War days. "E" is the location of the Lincoln memorial, "F" is the Reflecting Pool, and "G" is the location of the WW ll Memorial where the WW ll stamps above mentioned were first unveiled last November11th. "H" marks the Washington Memorial and just 2 blocks North and just off the map to the top is where the White House stands. 

Back on Friday with a little twist perhaps!

Bart