If I had titled this thread War Heroes,the thread would never end.There are literally millions of veterans that would qualify by my definition.I have always admired the courage of medics in the heat of battle,the married man with 2 children who volunteers when he probably could have gotten out of his military obligation during wartime,etc.
Instead I thought we could pay tribute to those who performed acts of bravery during war.
A man does not decide to be a hero and acts the part,there is something that prompts him/her to act with complete disregard of their own safety in the face of a threat to themselves and to others.
One of my favorites has always been[b] Sgt.Alvin York[/b] who during WWI more than qualified to be mentioned.
York was a humble man from the "Valley of the Three Forks" in Tennessee,whose story is well known.
A more recent man is [b]Mike Thornton [/b] who's story I shall tell later in the thread.(as soon as the secretaries get off my case to do my work)
BTW:I never met Sgt York(he died around 1965)and I have not had the privilege of meeting Mr Thornton .[:)]
So go ahead and tell us about these unselfish acts of courage that makes us all proud to be an American.

As an aside:
I am not sure when the "Congressional" part was added to the Medal of Honor,but I have read authors who very emphatically state it is NOT the CMOH....just The Medal of Honor.

A great part of why I post is to learn from others.I am not "nit picking" on the title,just passing on what I have read with the hope someone can enlighten me.
I agree it is a great honor to be the recipient of the medal.What in my post gave you the impression I feel differently? [>:/]

In late October 1972,a SEAL/LDNN mission came up in Quang tri Province.To gather inteligence on the Cua Viet Base that had been captured by the NVA during the Easter Offensive.After being inserted in the wrong location by the junk captain who took them there,the patrol encountered a squad of NVA which the SEAL/LDNN team quickly eliminated.40-60 additional NVA troops came right behind the already eliminated squad.The situation got too out of hand and with the team running low on ammo lieut.Norris,the patrol leader called in the rest of the fire mission from the ships assisting the to be dropped on their own position after a 5 min wait.By then either the team would be out or they wouldn't care anymore.
A bullet hit Norris just above his eye.
The LDNN)Vietnamese counterpart to the US SEALs)continued to retreat to the beach,telling Thornton that Norris was dead.Thornton exploded "BULLSHIT" and ran towards Norris through 125 meters of enemy fire.As the LDNN stared at the huge SEAL he told the"swim"Inflating his teammate's life jacket and his own Thornton began to swim out to sea.An LDNN who had been wounded at the same time Thornton got hit with a fragmentation grenade was struggling in the water.Thornton did some preliminary first aid on Norris and continued to swim out to sea,pushing his teammate in front of him and pulling the LDNN behind him.This went on for hours until they were picked up by the junk that inserted them.Both Norris and Thornton survived and received The Medal of Honor at the same time.Norris had earned his on a previous mission.It is the only time a MOH recepient saves another MOH recepient!

For more details see:"Free Fire Zones" by Kevin Dockery pp218-230