Mike Ali was born in 1948 in the Lower East Side of New York City. As a young child, his family moved to the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx, a “giant melting pot... with a very ethnically diverse community.” Growing up in the Marble Hill housing project with two thousand other neighborhood children was “a lot of fun. We were kids
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Marcus V. Arroyo was born on August 5, 1950 in the South Bronx of New York. His father was a sailor in the Merchant Marines, who sailed during World War II in the Atlantic, delivering desperately needed supplies through dangerous, submarine-infested waters to England. One of his father’s ships was blown up and he was
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There are seventy-nine living recipients of the Medal of Honor, bestowed by the President in the name of the Congress for acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Paul William Bucha is one of them. “Medals of Honor,” he explains, “are not given for running up and down hills and charging bunkers. Ninety-nine percent of the
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Roberto Delgado was born June 14, 1948, in Puerto Rico. His grandmother’s side of the family was descended from the Arawak-speaking Taino peoples indigenous to the Caribbean Islands, while his grandfather was of Spanish descent, from the Canary Islands. During the 1950’s, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York searching for greater
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Jerry Donnellan is a true native New York hero. He was born on December 28th, 1946 in Nyack, New York to Irish-American parents. He is the youngest of five children, all of whom attended Albertus Magnus High School in Rockland County. He went on to go to Rockland Community College and then transferred to Texas A&M soon after
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“War is like nothing you will ever experience.” With these somber words U.S. Army veteran Richard Drago recalls his service in Vietnam during two tours of duty in 1969 and 1970. Nothing in his childhood growing up a city kid in Brooklyn prepared him for the grim reality of war. Born June 3, 1949, Richard lived with his family in a brownstone
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Warren Craig received his Purple Heart for injuries he suffered near Guadalcanal in late 1942. The United States had been in World War II for less than one year. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had destroyed most of the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Most of our battleships and destroyers were in the Atlantic supporting
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The year 2006 was a horrific time for those living in Iraq. The war had been raging for three years. The American soldiers stationed in Iraq were there for a noble cause, to ensure and protect the freedoms and ideals of Iraqi citizens. As the new year dawned in January of 2006, more than 2,000 American soldiers had lost their lives
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It was an old, dusty antique store, located at the intersection between the Valley of Ashes and the Garden of Eden. Despite its outward appearance, this forlorn shop held a magnificent valuable. This treasure took the shape of a tarnished and forgotten, yet unadulterated medal, and would lead to the discovery of Captain Zachariah Fike’s true
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“Soldiers who have not been to war want to go to war. Soldiers who have been to war, don’t want to. They go because it is their duty,” expresses Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Gade, a two-time Purple Heart recipient, and instructor at West Point. “There is little glory in war, and whatever glory there is, is far outweighed by the horror of
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Richard R Gerbeth, Jr. was born November 18, 1972 in the Bronx. He grew up in Lake Carmel in Putnam County, New York. Both of Richard’s parents were teachers, and his father was a Navy Vietnam War era veteran. He had a happy childhood, participating in karate and sports such as baseball and soccer. He wanted to play football in
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Almost fifty years after fighting a war against an often unseen enemy in the jungles of Vietnam, Howard Goldin has returned to Vietnam to fight another battle. He and his fellow Rotarian members raise money to build schools in developing countries for orphaned children. They have built three schools in Vietnam, one in Jamaica, and one in
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One of the most dangerous jobs on the front lines. Only lightly armed if at all, these heroes dash out under enemy fire into open combat, risking their lives to save the lives of their wounded brethren. With bullets flying through the air, and mortar rounds and grenades exploding all around them, the medic puts his life on the line for
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Anthony Lassiter was born in February 1947 in Beacon, New York. He attended his local high school, where he was the quarterback for his football team, and a member of the varsity wrestling and baseball team, playing 2nd and 3rd base. He graduated high school in 1966.
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Richard Lay was born on February 27, 1949 in working-class Yorkville on the East Side of Manhattan, where his family’s apartment was on the fifth floor of a walk-up building. His father, a bus driver, served in the United States Army during World War II. His older brother was drafted into the Army and served in Vietnam from 1966 - 1967.
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The Fox News Clip is one of her cherished souvenirs. Corporal Megan Leavey is shown after landing at JFK with her German shepherd Rex, after being reunited thanks to the efforts of Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, his wife Mindy Levine, and New York Senator Charles Schumer.
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Evarist André LeMay was born in Port Washington, Long Island, New York in 1934. He and his younger sister were part of a working class family. LeMay’s father was a tool and die maker, and his mother was a homemaker. He was greatly influenced by his grandmother, who was a patriotic Scotswoman. She would often tell her
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Amanda Martino was born on June 7, 1984 in Lindenhurst, on Long Island. She was born into an Italian family, “very loud and very loving.” Her dad had dropped out of high school to enlist in the military, and served in Vietnam before becoming the head of maintenance for a large company. As the youngest of three siblings,
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Ross Pixler was 18 years old when he saved his friend’s life. The two were mountain climbing up Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano covered with glaciers, at 18,490 feet the third tallest mountain in North America. Far off the beaten path, they lost their way and spent three days and two nights in a remote area, when Ross’ friend, a
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Newburgh, New York. Located on the Hudson River’s west bank, its grounds are filled with history dating back to the American Revolution and beyond. This is the location where General George Washington, upon defeating Cornwallis’ elite British Army at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, chose to make his headquarters, in the bluffs
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