These Stories of Valor are part of an ongoing oral history program of the Honor Project to ensure the experiences of our combat wounded and those who gave their all in the service of America are remembered for generations to come.
Purple Heart Patriot Project Mission #1's representative from Minnesota, Matthew Birr said service, to him, meant having a "sense of pride in himself." Birr was awarded the Purple Heart following injuries suffered in Afghanistan in August 2009.
Read MoreJon "Wambi" Cook served in the U.S. Army for two years during the Vietnam War. Originally from Pittsburgh, Cook volunteered for the draft and went on to earn not only a Purple Heart, but also a Bronze Start with Valor, 4 Bronze Star Meritorious, an Army Commendation with one Oak Leaf, and a Presidential Unit Citation.
Read MoreHailing from St. Louis, Missouri, Air Force Sergeant Dennis Fetter was wounded during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Read MoreGary Lewis represented Oklahoma during the inaugural Purple Heart Patriot Project. Lewis, a Specialist with the U.S. Army, was a member of the 4th Infantry Division between 1969 and 1971.
Read MoreUnited States Army Sergeant First Class (SFC) Bradford Bunnell served during Desert Storm, in Somolia, Bosnia and on two deployments during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Read MoreMike 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
Read MoreMarcus 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
Read MoreThere 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
Read MoreRoberto 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
Read MoreJerry 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
Read More“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
Read MoreWarren 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
Read MoreThe 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
Read MoreIt 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
Read More“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
Read MoreRichard 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
Read MoreAlmost 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
Read MoreOne 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
Read MoreAnthony 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.
Read MoreRichard 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.
Read More
