“If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.”
– Maj. Michael D. McDonnell
Killed in action on 24 March 1970
A nation that doesn’t honor its heroes doesn’t deserve them. In these pages we salute those decorated for valor, held as a prisoner of war, missing in action, or gave their life. Perhaps to a man, the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines found here would shrug off the title of hero and insist that the true heroes were the ones that didn’t come back, or the men to their left and right. But those warriors he mentions fighting beside would say the same thing about him. Here we salute their service so our grateful nation can remember and celebrate these great men.
Real American Heroes is a constantly expanding database. If you have someone in mind you would like us to recognize, please contact us.
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