Selena Borrill
Period 4
24 Discriminated
The chances of doing something that earns you of the Medal of Honor are 11,000 to one. (www.fun) The Medal of Honor is given to those who risk their life and do more than asked while an active soldier. (www.us) Imagine being worthy of one of these medals because of a heroic action you performed. After having done more than required or saving a life at the risk of you own, you would be worthy of the highest military award there is. Imagine being denied the right to wear the Medal of Honor because of who you were. To never get the award you had earned do to your beliefs or skin color.
Melvin Morris volunteered for the army when he was 19 years old. (www.cnn) On September 17, 1969 he was in Vietnam. Melvin Morris charged into enemy fire despite having several injuries so he could save his fatally wounded sergeant and retrieve a vital map. (www.wa) (www.npr) His actions earned him the Medal of Honor that day. However, Melvin Morris was not given a Medal of Honor, because he was African American. Instead he received a lower award called the Disting...
Giving way to the parties and the fun associated with college kids, Caputo failed out of college and realized what he really wanted to be was a Marine. He joined the Marines and went through a lot of officer training until he eventually reached what would be known as his final rank of Lieutenant. Introduced to the Vietnam War in 1965 as a Platoon leader, Caputo walked into the war a little scared but with a lot of determination. Caputo started the war with a lot of field work including jungle expeditions and shooting escapades, and eventually was sent to keep track of the everyday deaths occurring during the war and all the paperwork associated with such a job. Later he was put back in charge of a platoon which eventually lead to his downfall following an unethical order he gave his men that resulted in the killing of a couple Vietnamese pedestrians believed to be part of the Viet Cong.
This is due to a stigma that presented itself during the Vietnam era – that is the time of the Vietnam War. Countless men were drafted into a war that no one wanted to fight. A study conducted in 1980 found that “Vietnam veterans who entered the military, served and fought in Vietnam, and were released into a hostile American society were severely handicapped” (Conflict). These men who were forced to give their lives, to become disabled in many cases, were released in this “hostile” society that hated them for doing what was not a choice on their end. They should have been honored like those who fought before them in World War II, but they were completely dismissed, despised, and left to fight for their own
He was then drafted into the U.S. Army where he was refused admission to the Officer Candidate School. He fought this until he was finally accepted and graduated as a first lieutenant. He was in the Army from 1941 until 1944 and was stationed in Kansas and Fort Hood, Texas. While stationed in Kansas he worked with a boxer named Joe Louis in order to fight unfair treatment towards African-Americans in the military and when training in Fort Hood, Texas he refused to go to the back of the public bus and was court-martialed for insubordination. Because of this he never made it to Europe with his unit and in 1944 he received an honorable discharge.
His college years took place during the height of the Vietnam War, which he personally supported. Subsequently, he joined the United States Army Reserve Officer Training Corps, but unfortunately his military career was short-lived due to his poor eyesight. After graduating in 1969 with a b...
The Vietnam Veteran I interviewed was my grandfather; he was 27 years old during the time of the war. He volunteered to go to Vietnam because he didn’t like picking fruits and vegetables in the hot sun with his father. That’s when he decided to join the service and he volunteered to go to Vietnam. My grandfather only served one tour, because he wanted to go home to his family. So, his younger brother Rick who was single volunteered to go to Vietnam. My grandfather told me that Rick had a death wish so it didn’t really matter to him if he came back dead or alive.
The Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil war and begins with a soldier named Jim Conklin returning back to his regiment to inform them that they might go into battle any day now. The main character of the story Henry Fleming who was recently recruited in the 304th regiment begins to worry about how brave he really is since he has never really been in battle before. The main reason he joined the army was for the honor and glory that came after the battle but he never really analyzed what it took to gain all the glory and honor that he wanted to obtain.
Black soldiers made their first major impact in the United States military during the Civil War. Upon their entrance into the armed forces, African Americans were discriminated against by the white soldiers. A regiment in the Union army called the Buffalo soldiers was viewed as inferior. None of the white soldiers wanted to fight with this group, so the Buffalo soldiers were sent to the far west where they could fight and not interfere with the whites. The Buffalo soldiers operated in the west from 1867-1896. During this span, fourteen medals of honor were awarded to the Buffalo soldiers, the highest military award. These soldiers became known for their bravery and courage in battle. This angered the whites, who did not want African Americans in the military. However, the courage demonstrated by the Buffalo soldiers allowed for other African American regiments to be created (“Buffalo Soldier”).
Unique in style and content, the novel explores the emotions of a young Civil War recruit named Henry Fleming. What is most remarkable about this classic is that the twenty-four-year-old author had never witnessed war in his life before writing this book. Crane's story developed to some degree out of his reading of war stories by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the popular memoirs of Civil War veterans, yet he also deviated from these influences in his depiction of war's horror. Critics have noted that his portrait of war is an intensely psychological one, blending elements of naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism. Indeed, he broke away from his American realist contemporaries, including his mentor William Dean Howells, in his naturalistic treatment of man as an amoral creature in a deterministic world.
needed on the farm and not in the war. Henry knew his mother would not
I was very excited when I heard that I had been invited into National Junior Honors Society. The first time I heard of NJHS, it instantly became a goal of mine. When my older sister left for college I was very sad, so I think that this is a way for me to keep a part of her. I have always been that little girl no one understood, because I’m always very excited to learn and get back to school after summer break. I’m very happy to see that I’ve been invited, but this is why I should be accepted.
- Oral Histories from NJ Vietnam Veterans,” during the Vietnam War, soldiers thought they did a great job but when they came back home it was “coming home to a different country.” They were expecting a warm hug and kisses from their people just like the World War II but instead they were called names like “Baby killers” and protesters threw tomatoes and spit on them. They were even told to go back to the plane. Those veterans were surprised about what was going on because they were not aware of the protests. One of the veterans exemplifies how it was a huge turn off if you mentioned that you were a Vietnam veteran when one approaching girls. Furthermore the Vietnam Veterans were discriminated in many ways. For instance, Dan Edwards shares a story about how a bank teller hurled a check book at him while opening a bank account after he mentioned that he got back from Vietnam. Therefore, those veterans threw their uniforms in the garbage because they did not wanted to be abused by the
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. was born December 18, 1912 in Washington D.C. His father, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. was one of the few African-American officers in the U.S. Army. Davis, Jr. was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy in 1932 by Rep. Oscar S. De Priest, the only black congressman at that time. At West Point he endured ostracism from both classmates and superiors who wanted to see him fail. He persevered and graduated 35th in a class of 276 in 1936. He was the fourth African-American graduate in the Academy’s history. Upon commissioning he and his father became the only two black officers in the army. His application to the Army Air Corps was refused because the Air Corps did not accept African-Americans.
“ Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.” The Solemn phrase engraved into what became the tomb of the Unknown Solider offers a sense of dignity and tranquil feeling to those who visits the magnificent marble sarcophagus. The body of an unknown soldier was entombed on November 11, 1921, as a tribute paid by the Americans to those soldiers who perished during World War I. A military honor guard was established at the tomb. The honor guard is made up of select members of the Third U.S. Army Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard. Guarded day and night, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier became a national memorial that will forever symbolize the peace, victory, and valor of those American soldiers died fighting for the freedom of this country.
The Red Badge of Courage, by it’s very title, is infested with color imagery and color symbols. While Crane uses color to describe, he also allows it to stand for whole concepts. Gray, for example, describes both the literal image of a dead soldier and Henry Fleming’s vision of the sleeping soldiers as corpses and comes to stand for the idea of death. In the same way, red describes both the soldiers’ physical wounds and Henry’s mental vision of battle. In the process, it gains a symbolic meaning which Crane will put an icon like the ‘red badge of courage’. Stephen Crane uses color in his descriptions of the physical and the non-physical and allows color to take on meanings ranging from the literal to the figurative.
So, what does it mean to be deserving of the Medal of Honor? Well, simple someone who sacrifices their lives for others; someone who is courageous and shows bravery, someone who is hard working and cares about the lives of strangers. The men who fight for our lives every day to insure that we have the freedom that we know we deserve. “Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as well as property.” As many of us sit in school or speak what is on our mind all have to be thankful for the very reason we are able to do so, which is Men of Honor. I truly believe that every soldier is deserving of the Medal of Honor. They put their lives at stake, leave their families behind and they fight for what they believe in. If those actions do not make them deserving then I don’t know what does. I have listed just a few...