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  MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS IN PANAMA                                     [p5 of 8]  

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  MOH

Presented by the President in the Name of the Congress, it is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon any American.  The men who wear it call themselves "recipients" (not winners), for what they received it for was not a contest...it was a time of terror and death where their valor was tested, then recognized by a grateful Nation.  All of them feel that they didn't win The Medal...they RECEIVED it.  Frequently called "The Congressional Medal of Honor", its true title is simply:

MEDAL OF HONOR

Source:homeofheroes.com

The Medal of Honor was created in 1861.  Today there are three types of MOH:  Army, Air Force, and Navy.

Since the first award of the MOH made March 25, 1863, during the Civil War, through Operation Enduring Freedom (War in Iraq) there have been:  

3,467 Medals of Honor awarded to our nation's bravest Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen and eight civilians

 For 3,461 separate acts of heroism

Performed by 3,448 individuals (including 9 “Unknowns”)  

(As of June 2, 2008) 

Source:homeofheroes.com

As of June 2008, there are 105 MOH recipients still with us: 30 - WWII, 14 - Korea, and 61 - Vietnam.

Source:homeofheroes.com

FOR DETAILS ON ALL MOH RECIPIENTS GO TO SOURCES AT:

HOME OF HEROES

CMOH SOCIETY   

ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY- MOH List

POOR IS THE NATION
THAT HAS NO HEROES;
SHAMEFUL IS THE NATION THAT HAS THEM AND FORGETS

From a military monument at
Bolivar,TN

Source:specialoperations.com

 

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS PASSING / FLYING THROUGH PANAMA

 

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH, JR. - U. S. ARMY AIR CORPS RESERVE  (MOH 1928)

Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.

U.S. Army Air Corp Reserve

 

 

Charles Lindberg began his aviation career after graduating from the Army Air Service flight-training school in1925 at Brooks and Kelly fields, near San Antonio, Texas.  But, since the Army then was not recruiting pilots, he was free to  to find civilian employment and the Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis hired him in 1926 to fly the mail between St. Louis and Chicago, one part of the budding trans-continental service.   He gained a reputation as a cautious and capable pilot.

After a short stint with the air mail service, Lindbergh dropped out to compete for a publicized $25,000 prize for the first one to fly non-stop alone across the Atlantic Ocean.  After his historic 33 and 1/2-hour nonstop solo flight May 20-21, 1927, from New York to Paris in "The Spirit of St. Louis" (for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor - citation below), he toured the United States in "The Spirit of Saint Louis".  For that feat, he was awarded the Medal of Honor December 1927 by an Act of Congress.

Soon thereafter he flew  to Panama on the first part of a Latin America tour in the same airplane January 9, 1928, after arriving from San Jose, Costa Rica at Campo Lindbergh outside Panama City (named in his honor after his historic flight) visited with Canal Zone and Panamanian officials in Panama City and Colon and toured interior parts of Panama.  He departed Panama January 28, 1928.  

Lindbergh returned to the air mail service when Pan American Airways hired him as a technical advisor to the President of Pan Am (Juan Trippe) to pioneer routes around the Caribbean and Latin America.  He inaugurated the Miami-to-Panama air mail service February 6, 1929, when he flew the first air mail to the Panama Canal Zone in a Sikorsky S-38 airplane.  

 
Lindbergh - PanAm S-38 Sikorsky airplane at Miami.  Same airplane used for Miami to Panama airmail flights -- Florida State Archives - on airminded.net site
Arrival of first airmail from Panama at Miami  Feb 13, 1929; Lindbergh pilot -- Florida State Archives - on airminded.net site

 

COL Charles Lindbergh (center) at France Field, Canal Zone, in 1928 -- The Era of U.S. Army Installations in Panama - France Field U.S. Army South History Office document Jan 1996

 

On April 27, 1930, Lindbergh flew a Sikorsky S-38-B Amphibian Biplane (registration NC 142 M) for Pan American Airways, Inc. from Miami to Panama via Havanna, Cuba and Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.  In November 1930,  Lindbergh  and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh (also a pilot) inaugurated Clipper Ship service of Pan American Airways by flying the new Sikorsky S-40 Flying Boat, Southern Clipper, from Miami to the Panama Canal Zone. 

By the early 1930s, there were more than 100 flying boats operating between the United States, Central and South America. Pan American Airways linked United States with thirty-one countries in the Western Hemisphere.

For Lindbergh's subsequent career, go to these web sites:  Charles Lindbergh: An American Aviator at  http://www.charleslindbergh.com or Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation at http://www.lindberghfoundation.org .

Sources:

Charles Lindbergh: An American Aviator at  http://www.charleslindbergh.com  

Lindbergh: U.S. Air Mail Service Pioneer at  http://www.charleslindbergh.com/airmail/

Holcomb's Aerodrome at http://www.airminded.net/  

 

 

 

 moh_army.gif (14215 bytes)

The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH

 

 

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve.

Place and date: From New York City to Paris, France, 20-21 May 1927.

Entered service at: Little Falls, Minn. Born: 4 February 1902, Detroit, Mich.

G.O. No.: 5, W.D., 1928;  Act of Congress 14 December 1927.

 

Citation:

For displaying heroic courage and skill as a navigator, at the risk of his life, by his nonstop flight in his airplane, the "Spirit of St. Louis," from New York City to Paris, France, 20-21 May 1927, by which Capt. Lindbergh not only achieved the greatest individual triumph of any American citizen but demonstrated that travel across the ocean by aircraft was possible.

 

Citation and photos courtesy of Home Of Heroes.com

 

 

This page last updated:  July 4, 2008
Site developed, owned and maintained by 
William H. Ormsbee, Jr. 1999-2001 / 2005-2008
(Including WHO's IN RETROSPECT site 1999-2001)