 My name is James Warke, I'm the 87th Air Base Wing Historian here at Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst and today we're going to recognize some Medal of Honor recipients who hail from the guard state of New Jersey. The first recipient is Staff Sergeant Peter Spencer Conner who is with Company F of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines. On 25 February 1966 in the Quang Nai province in Vietnam, he was leading a platoon on a search and destroy operation in an area made particularly hazardous by extensive cave and tunnel complexes. He maneuvered his unit aggressively forward on intermittent enemy small arms fire. Because he was very alert to what was going on, he spotted an enemy spider hole in placement. He pulled a pin on a grenade to throw the grenade into the spider hole and as soon as he pulled the pin he realized that the fuse was bad. It actually started the process of detonation. He only had 3 or 5 seconds to make a decision and what he ended up doing was actually throwing himself on top of the grenade. In an effort to save everyone around him, he gave his life earned in the Medal of Honor. Next we have Master Sergeant Charles Ernest Hosking Jr, Company A of the 5th Special Forces Group who on 21 March 1967 in Vietnam in the Don Luan District, they had just arrested a Viet Cong suspect. They were getting ready to transport him when the enemy soldier grabbed a grenade off of his belt and started running towards his leadership and the Vietnamese leadership recognized what was happening. He threw himself on the ground with the enemy combatant and the grenade went off underneath him in an effort to save everyone around him. He ended up giving his life, both him and the enemy soldier were killed. Next one is a little bit older. It goes back to October 1918, US Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander James Jonas Madison was the commanding officer of the USS Ticonderoga. I went on for October 1918. His ship was attacked by an enemy submarine and was sunk after a prolonged battle. The submarine opened fire at a range of about 500 yards and the first shots did pretty significant damage to the ship. They fought back and forth for nearly two hours. He was wounded and despite his wounds continued to give command and make sure that the ship was outmaneuvering and taking it to the enemy the best they could. As the ship was sinking they knew it was too late. He gave the order to abandon ship, passed out from his blood loss but his men weren't going to leave him there so they took him, lowered him on a life raft and he actually survived. He fought until he couldn't fight anymore giving commands to his crew. Because of his actions 31 of the 236 on board survived. Next, Major Thomas B. McGuire Jr. related to the McGuire Air Force Base was a P-38 pilot in the Pacific during World War II. He received his Medal of Honor for Action on 25 and 26 December 1944 where they got into an aerial combat with about 20 Japanese fighters. They were providing top cover for bombers that were on a bombing mission in the Philippine area of operations and he maneuvered his plane shooting down enemy aircraft. He maneuvered his plane even after his guns jammed. He was able to maneuver his plane to force enemy aircraft into the line of sight of his wingmen so they could be shot down. He got his 38th victory during that time making him the second leading ace in the Air Force. He was able to save a wingman on 7 January 1945 when he died. He was maneuvering his aircraft to get a line of sight on an enemy aircraft that was trying to shoot down his wingmen and in doing so he ended up actually doing a rescue maneuver that caused him to lose airspeed and he crashed. He was at MIA for a number of years and his wife was presented the Medal of Honor posthumously here in the state of New Jersey. Finally, we have 1st Lieutenant Samuel Corson, Company C, 5th Calvary Regiment who on 12 October 1950 at K-Song, Korea was leading an attack on hill 174 under enemy small arms fire. The platoon returned fire and continued to advance. During this phase when I was men moved into a well camouflaged emplacement which he thought was unoccupied and was wounded by the enemy who were hidden in that emplacement. Seeing the soldier in difficulty he rushed to the man's aid and without regard to his safety engaged the enemy in hand to hand combat in an effort to protect his wounded comrade until he himself was killed. When his body was recovered after the battle there were seven enemy soldiers that were dead around him. As a result of his violent action and his determination to save his comrade he was presented the Medal of Honor posthumously. And those are five Medal of Honor winners who hail from the guard state of New Jersey who are related to the joint base who at some point also trained here at Fort Dix.