I’ve always felt that if I am deserving of the Medal of Honor, there are many, many others who are. I felt a little bad receiving it, so I received it on behalf of the fellows, because there’s no such thing as a single-handed war. There’s always a support group, and if you didn’t have people who supported you, you couldn’t fight a war.
Daniel Inouye
It wasn’t the Medal of Honor that changed my life.
It was being in Vietnam itself. The close situations changed my whole way of thinking about my life. It showed me that things can disappear like the snap of your fingers. As a young guy you thought you were invincible and nothing could ever hurt you, and stuff like that, and living life to the fullest.
This medal belongs to every man and woman who has ever served their country. We were doing what we were trained to do. We were doing our job.
Michael E. Thornton
I follow the teachings of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, United States Marine Corps. He won two Congressional Medals of Honor, and he wrote the highly controversial antiwar book ‘War is a Racket.’
Jesse Ventura
They said we were soft, that we would not fight, that we could not win.
We are not a warlike nation. We do not go to war for gain or for territory; we go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. I think I told every one of them that I would rather have that medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, than to be President of the United States.
Harry S Truman
“They [442nd Regimental Combat Team] did more than defend America. They helped define America at its best…Rarely has a nation been so well served by a people it has so ill-treated.”
President Bill Clinton, quoted in Honor Before Glory
