In 1861 and several years later on march 25, 1863, the first medal of honor was presented to u. S. Army private jacob. Since then only 6,000 have been awarded. To americas soldiers, sailors, marines, and coast guardsmen. 3,470 represents a very small fraction of the tens of millions of women who have served in uniform. As of today, there are only 79 living recipients of the medal of honor and im pleased to be here with two of these american heroes. Our first served for 27 years and treaved medal of honor for valor during the vietnam war. He retired from the marine corps in 1979 and served as deputy secretary assistant for the navy until 2009. He also served as acting assistant secretary of the navy from january through april 2009. Please welcome medal of honor recipient and u. S. Marine colonel, Barney Barnum. [applause] our second panelist served in the army for 26 years. He was one of americas first soldiers to don the green beray green beret authorized by president kennedy to be wor
And talked and there were whistles and calls and the air force got up and the navy got up and the students were giving them the old raspberry. And the marine got up and said there is nobody in this room i want in this room in my military you are all undisciplined. And he crude out the faculty and picked up his gear and walked off stage. At the end of the auditorium i was one of 13 guys that stood at his table. He put his table back together and we talked and i joined the United States marine corps. There was a gunny sergeant who knew what had to be done. Had a mission. Was proud of who he represented. Wasnt going to take any shenanigans and i said i think id like to be like that guy. Sergeant morris you were raised in oklahoma. Tell us about your early life and your early role models when you were growing up there. My role model was an uncle of mine and he was a parra trooper in the triple nickel which was a segregated Airborne Unit at the. But i was so impressed just looking at him in