What is the current name of the Medal of Honor?
However, the official name of the current award is “Medal of Honor”. Within the United States Code the medal is referred to as the “Medal of Honor”, and less frequently as “Congressional Medal of Honor”.
What was the original design of the Medal of Honor?
The medal of honor is bronze, of neat device, and is highly prized by those of whom it has been bestowed”, “Townsend wrote in an 1864 report. Its original design, embodied first in the Navy Medal, was an inverted, five-pointed star ^ Above and Beyond: A History of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Vietnam.
Who was the first person to receive the Medal of Honor?
Recipients 1 The first Medals of Honor were awarded and presented to six U.S. 2 The first U.S. 3 The first Marines awarded the Medal of Honor were John F. 4 The first, and so far only, Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Medal of Honor was Signalman First Class Douglas Munro.
What is the size of the Medal of Honor?
The United States Congress considered a bill in 2004 which would require the Medal of Honor to be made with 90% gold, the same composition as the lesser-known Congressional Gold Medal, but the measure was dropped. 1⁄2 inches [3.8 cm] wide, surrounded by a green laurel wreath and suspended from a gold bar inscribed VALOR, surmounted by an eagle.
How many medals of Honor were given to officers in WWI?
The bill included a provision (Chap. 1, Sec. 7) for 200 “medals of honor”, “to be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and marines as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other seaman-like qualities during the present war.”
Who is the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor?
He was posthumously awarded it on May 27, 1943, for evacuating 500 Marines under fire on September 27, 1942, during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The only woman awarded the Medal of Honor is Mary Edwards Walker, who was a civilian Army surgeon during the American Civil War.