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MEDAL OF HONOR DAY is March 25th every year.
MEDAL OF HONOR DAY is March 25th every year.
Today's assignments:
Today's assignments:
Look at Powerpoint on Medal of Honor
Read the information about Colonel Ballard below and his heroic action.
Watch the interview (17:50).
Watch a short clip explaining the Medal of Honor.
Read the six shared character traits of Medal of Honor recipients:
Courage: Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty
Integrity: Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values
Sacrifice: Destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else
Commitment: The state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled
Citizenship: The character of an individual viewed as a member of a society; behavior in terms of the duties obligations, and functions of a citizen.
Patriotism: Love for or devotion to one's country
ACTIVITIES:
Small-Group Activity:
Every group will create a Medal of Honor.
Read the characteristics above. Brainstorm (as a group) and write on your “medal” the characteristics and adjectives that describe the Medal of Honor recipients.
Share your medal with the class.
Individual activity:
Answer the following questions:
What can you learn from the examples set by the Medal of Honor Recipients you heard about?
How can you apply this lesson to your role as a young leader in your community, school, and/or family?
On a post-it note answer the following question. If you could award the Medal of Honor to someone in your life who has made a positive impact, who would it be? How do they show those traits?
Honoring the Medal of Honor recipient, Donald E Ballard.
Ballard is a retired colonel of the Kansas National Guard and a former member of the United States Navy. As a hospital corpsman in the Vietnam War, he received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on May 16, 1968.
He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1965. After he completed Navy recruit training and Hospital Corps School, he decided that he wanted to serve as a hospital corpsman with the United States Marine Corps and was sent to a Field Medical Service School. After he completed the course there, he was sent to Vietnam in 1967.
Interview with Medal of Honor recipient, Donald E Ballard, nickname "Doc".
On May 16, 1968, Ballard treated two Marines suffering from heat exhaustion, and when returning to his platoon from the casualty evacuation helicopter pad, his rifle company was attacked by a unit of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers. While under enemy fire, Ballard was attending to a wounded Marine when an enemy grenade landed near the wounded Marine, four other Marines, and himself. He immediately covered the grenade with his body to shield the five Marines from the blast. Realizing that the grenade failed to explode, he quickly threw it out of harm's way as it exploded, saving the Marines and himself from harm or death. He then continued on attending to wounded Marines during the firefight.
For his actions, he received the United States of America's highest military decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor from President Richard M. Nixon and General William Westmoreland.
Article on Ballard on Channel 3 News Pensacola
Additional Links: Florida Department of Veterans Affairs states there are 24 Medal of Honor recipients
Medal of Honor Historical Society
Medal of Honor Society - has a list of all winners by state (its a pdf)
How many Medal of Honor recipients have there been? How many are still alive? Well, according to the statistics on January 1, 2022, there have been 3,530 recipients and 66 are still alive today. This link also takes you to the first recipient, the first woman, and many more.
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