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For Everyday Heroes, a Way to Say Thanks
Medal of Honor Society Creates Awards for Citizens Who Go Above and Beyond
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 10, 2007; A04
Paul Bucha earned the Medal of Honor during an extended firefight near Phuoc Vinh, Vietnam, in which he and his men were outnumbered and almost overwhelmed and he was seriously wounded. He was then a 24-year-old Army captain. The year was 1968.
Now 64 and a real estate developer, Bucha and other holders of the nation's highest military award for valor are convinced that such courage exists everywhere among average American citizens.
Yesterday, with support from former secretary of state Colin L. Powell and a boost from NBC, Bucha and other members of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society launched a search for citizen heroes in a project they named the "Above & Beyond Citizen Honors."
During a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial, Bucha, Powell and other supporters said they plan to seek nominees nationwide for the honors, which will be awarded in a two-hour, primetime television special to be broadcast live from Constitution Hall on March 25, National Medal of Honor Day.
One nominee will be selected from each state, and three from that group will be named by the society to receive the honors. The society also will award a single so-called spotlight honor to a deserving person in the public eye who has helped the needy and supported men and women in uniform.
People can be nominated through Dec. 16 online at http://www.aboveandbeyond365.com.
"Between now and Dec. 16, if you hear about somebody in this great country that has reached out to help a fellow American," notify the Web site, said retired Army Col. Robert L. Howard, who also earned his Medal of Honor in Vietnam in 1968. "Get that name in so we can thank that American."
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., is made up of the 109 living recipients of the medal, which dates to the Civil War. More than 3,400 medals have been awarded.
Others attending yesterday's ceremony included former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia; Tiki Barber, the former New York Giants running back who's a broadcaster for NBC-TV; and Holly Petraeus, wife of Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Bucha, the District-born son of an Army colonel, was trained at West Point. He now lives in Ridgefield, Conn., is a past president of the society and was the chief impetus behind the project. On March 18, 1968, Bucha was wounded by shrapnel when his company encountered a larger enemy force, according to his medal citation. He had to crawl forward by himself and use hand grenades to destroy a hostile bunker, the source of machine gun fire that had his men pinned down.
In an interview Monday, he said that heroism, in war or peace, is an act of defiance -- a deed in which people "slam their fist and say, 'No. That isn't going to happen.' . . . It's just an act that comes about -- isn't planned, isn't necessarily understood. But it occurs. If you look at ordinary Americans, within them is this potential."
"There is a compassionate stimulus to the acts that we recognize as courageous," Bucha said. "We take for granted so much of what others do for us. . . . I want everyday Americans to look around them and among them and find those that are extraordinary and let us know about them."
Bucha said the honors will go to people who have done deeds above and beyond what duty or job has required.
"It is a celebration of service before self," he said. "It's that which you are not supposed to do, as your duty is defined."
There will probably be a financial honorarium attached to the awards, he said, but the amount has not been determined.
"This concept they have of recognizing people who went above and beyond in our communities . . . because they felt it was the right thing to do is a wonderful idea," Holly Petraeus said yesterday. Heroism "is within a lot of us. It's just not tapped into. It's not always recognized."
"We all hope that we have a seed of that in us," she said.
Medal of Honor Society Creates Awards for Citizens Who Go Above and Beyond
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 10, 2007; A04
Paul Bucha earned the Medal of Honor during an extended firefight near Phuoc Vinh, Vietnam, in which he and his men were outnumbered and almost overwhelmed and he was seriously wounded. He was then a 24-year-old Army captain. The year was 1968.
Now 64 and a real estate developer, Bucha and other holders of the nation's highest military award for valor are convinced that such courage exists everywhere among average American citizens.
Yesterday, with support from former secretary of state Colin L. Powell and a boost from NBC, Bucha and other members of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society launched a search for citizen heroes in a project they named the "Above & Beyond Citizen Honors."
During a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial, Bucha, Powell and other supporters said they plan to seek nominees nationwide for the honors, which will be awarded in a two-hour, primetime television special to be broadcast live from Constitution Hall on March 25, National Medal of Honor Day.
One nominee will be selected from each state, and three from that group will be named by the society to receive the honors. The society also will award a single so-called spotlight honor to a deserving person in the public eye who has helped the needy and supported men and women in uniform.
People can be nominated through Dec. 16 online at http://www.aboveandbeyond365.com.
"Between now and Dec. 16, if you hear about somebody in this great country that has reached out to help a fellow American," notify the Web site, said retired Army Col. Robert L. Howard, who also earned his Medal of Honor in Vietnam in 1968. "Get that name in so we can thank that American."
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., is made up of the 109 living recipients of the medal, which dates to the Civil War. More than 3,400 medals have been awarded.
Others attending yesterday's ceremony included former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia; Tiki Barber, the former New York Giants running back who's a broadcaster for NBC-TV; and Holly Petraeus, wife of Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Bucha, the District-born son of an Army colonel, was trained at West Point. He now lives in Ridgefield, Conn., is a past president of the society and was the chief impetus behind the project. On March 18, 1968, Bucha was wounded by shrapnel when his company encountered a larger enemy force, according to his medal citation. He had to crawl forward by himself and use hand grenades to destroy a hostile bunker, the source of machine gun fire that had his men pinned down.
In an interview Monday, he said that heroism, in war or peace, is an act of defiance -- a deed in which people "slam their fist and say, 'No. That isn't going to happen.' . . . It's just an act that comes about -- isn't planned, isn't necessarily understood. But it occurs. If you look at ordinary Americans, within them is this potential."
"There is a compassionate stimulus to the acts that we recognize as courageous," Bucha said. "We take for granted so much of what others do for us. . . . I want everyday Americans to look around them and among them and find those that are extraordinary and let us know about them."
Bucha said the honors will go to people who have done deeds above and beyond what duty or job has required.
"It is a celebration of service before self," he said. "It's that which you are not supposed to do, as your duty is defined."
There will probably be a financial honorarium attached to the awards, he said, but the amount has not been determined.
"This concept they have of recognizing people who went above and beyond in our communities . . . because they felt it was the right thing to do is a wonderful idea," Holly Petraeus said yesterday. Heroism "is within a lot of us. It's just not tapped into. It's not always recognized."
"We all hope that we have a seed of that in us," she said.