By Kieran Doherty

(***Note: This book was written in 1998, two years before 21 Japanese Americans from WWII had their Distinguished Service Cross medals upgraded to the Congressional Medal of Honor.)

The recipients of this highest honor have been as diverse as the United States itself. Included among the eleven heroes in this book are three from the civil War: the first soldier to receive the honor; the first African American; and the first woman, a doctor. From World War I there is a pioneering flying ace, and from World War II, a navy skipper of a PT boat. A native American and Japanese American were both honored for courage in the Korean War, and a Hispanic American, for service in the Vietnam conflict. Two posthumous awards were given to soldiers for valor in Somalia. Their childhoods as well as their heroic action under fire are described. The recipients include Jacob Parrott, William Carney, Mary Edwards Walker, Eddie Rickenbacker, Alvin York, John Bulkeley, Mitchell Red Cloud, Hiroshi Miyamura, Jay Vargas, and Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart.