Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words
This collection of interviews with recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the military's highest recognition for valor, will benefit from cross-promotion on the cover ofParade, the Sunday newspaper magazine. Two dozen men from various races and walks of life talk about their battlefield experiences here. All exhibit a marked modesty about receiving their medals, as they uniformly regard their fighting actions as unexceptional under fearsome, noisy, blood-spattered conditions. They emphasize instead the men who didn't survive--a high proportion of Medals of Honor have been conferred posthumously--while expressing mild incredulity at being singled out for distinction. Nevertheless, the do-or-die details Smith induces from his interlocutors convey a quality of bravery beyond, as the citations state, the call of duty--nobody stages a bayonet charge, as Lewis Millett did in Korea, just because he is ordered to. A visceral volume that will arrest readers of military affairs.Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved