Steering into the Storm
Why we Award the Medal of Honor
When aircraft take-off, they note from which direction the wind is coming, then fly straight into it at full throttle. Ships at sea facing raging storms turn into the massive, advancing walls of water, plunging through the waves with engines ahead full.
“Let’s roll” entered the American mythos as an expression of determination in the face of overwhelming odds. All first responders know this; it’s what they do. When something bad happens in our society and the public is frantically trying to get away— a fire, an active shooter, an industrial accident, a storm, a flood — first responders are heading into the storm.
This brings us to the Medal of Honor; America’s highest military recognition for acts of “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy at the risk of one’s own life above and beyond the call of duty.” For a taste of what that means, check out this White House YouTube video of a Medal of Honor presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt53GPz9dmE
Army Captain Florent “Flo” Groberg ran right into the storm. The former University of Maryland track star took heroic actions in Afghanistan that brought him to be the latest recipient of America’s Medal of Honor.
Medal of Honor recipients are a unique class of American. The underlying current in each of their stories is that they acted as they did simply because it needed to be done. But it is the purity of selflessness facing down all rationality, heading into the teeth of horror for the love of others. We recognize their embodiment of what may be the best of humanity with a small token of gratitude. They do what needs to be done under the worst of circumstances and with the most sublime humility. Please take a look at his story in the Military Times linked here to fully appreciate the quality of these Americans:
Monumental USA is dedicated to highlighting local monuments and the human stories that lay at their foundation. The desire is to reinvigorate civic pride and sense of ownership through interesting monuments to events and personalities great and small across the nation, with a special focus on local and perhaps obscure or forgotten memorials.
