Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words

Military Review, July-August, 2004 by James H. Willbanks

BEYOND GLORY: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words, Larry Smith, W.W. Norton, New York, 2003, 320 pages, $26.95.

The Medal of Honor was established in 1862 and only 3,410 individuals have received it, many of those posthumously. Today, there are approximately 140 living recipients from World Wars I and II and the Vietnam war.

Veteran editor and journalist Larry Smith, formerly with the New York Times and Parade, interviewed several Medal of Honor recipients and put together 24 firsthand accounts from Pearl Harbor to the bloody battlefields of Vietnam. Smith has interviewed a cross section of those who received America's highest honor: officers and enlisted men; African-Americans; Japanese-Americans; Hispanics and Caucasians; the famous and not so famous. His list includes former U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Bob Kerrey and lesser known recipients like Rodolfo Hernandez of Colton, California, who on 31 May 1951, singlehandedly broke up an enemy attack near Wontong-ni, Korea, being grievously wounded in the process.

Sacrifice and duty are common themes of these stories. The recipients made the ultimate commitment to country and buddies. They modestly claim they are not special; however, their deeds were clearly special--above and beyond the call of duty--in dangerous, life-threatening situations. They all insist they were not Medal of Honor "winners" but merely "recipients" of the medal representing those with whom they served.

Smith provides a brief scene-set-ring narrative that puts each Medal of Honor recipient's actions in historical context. He then lets each soldier tell his story in his own words. The stories reveal how seemingly ordinary men rise to accomplish extraordinary, often almost superhuman, feats in combat

The Medal of Honor recipient's photos and citations accompany each interview. Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Eddie Adams, who took the famous photo of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong suspect in the head during the 1968 Tet Offensive, took the photographs.

Although the book does not contain much in-depth analysis, this is not a shortcoming. The Medal of Honor recipients are eloquent, and their interviews require no elaboration. The stories are articulate and thought provoking, and provide insight into the backgrounds, thoughts, feelings, and memories of these uncommonly brave men. This is oral history at its best, and I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the subjects of courage and valor under fire and how "ordinary" men find it within themselves to answer the highest call on the battlefield.

LTC James H. Willbanks, USA, Retired, Ph.D., Fort Leavenworth, Kansas