Medal of Honor recipients. (The Goodness of America).(Brief Article)

On May 1st, during an emotional Rose Garden ceremony, President Bush stated that "the United States acknowledges a debt that time has not diminished" as he conferred the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest military commendation, on two servicemen who died in battle during World War II and the Vietnam War.

Mr. Bush described how Army helicopter pilot Captain Jon E. Swanson, during his second tour of duty, was called in to provide close air support for allied ground forces that came under heavy enemy fire in Cambodia on February 26, 1971. Flying at treetop level, Captain Swanson received intense ground fire while locating and engaging the enemy. After running out of heavy ordnance and most of his ammunition, he began dropping smoke grenades to alert other U.S. war planes about enemy positions. He then nursed his heavily damaged helicopter to safety, but immediately volunteered to return to the combat zone and continue marking targets. "Had he stayed on the ground," President Bush noted, "no one would have faulted him." But "he had seen that more targets needed marking to eliminate the danger to the troops on the ground." On that second mission Swanson flew directly into enemy fire until his helicopter exploded in flight.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, though the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had recommended the Medal of Honor. A recent review of his file concluded that he clearly deserved the latter honor.

The medal was also given posthumously to Captain Benjamin Louis Salomon, who served as a surgeon with the 27th Infantry Division at Saipan in the Marianas Islands during World War II. On July 7, ...