 stretch behind us into the past, forming corridors of time which echo to the bugle sound of valor. Those years and that valor have been given tangible focus here in this quiet shrine of tribute, the Hall of Heroes. This space is dedicated to a nation's remembrance, not of events, but of deeds. Deeds of Americans in uniform who gave more than was asked, more than could be asked of them. Not always their lives, but always themselves, without pause and without reservation. Each man whose name appears on these walls and those whose names will appear here are members of a unique fraternity of courage. They are all recipients of our nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor. It is given to those whose actions meet the standard spelled out in these few words, gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. To such men, the Hall of Heroes was dedicated on a sunny spring day, May 1968. Today we confer the Medal of Honor on four more gallant Americans. This is the first time that four men from each of the military services have been so honored together. Charles E. Hagemaster, James E. Williams, Gerald O. Young, Richard A. Pittman. They will place their names now in a new Hall of Heroes, created here in the Pentagon as a memorial to all who have earned their country's highest award for courage in combat. Action. Specialist Hagemaster, unhesitatingly and with total disregard for his own safety, race through the deadly hail of enemy fire to provide them medical aid. He changed his rifle for a machine gun and several belts of ammunition, left the relative safety of his position and unhesitatingly rushed forward to aid his comrades with serving as patrol officer of two river patrol boats when the patrol was taken under fire by two Sampans. He boldly led the patrol through the intense fire and damaged or destroyed 50 Sampans and seven joints. Regarding serious burns, Captain Young aided one of the wounded men and then attempted to lead the hostile forces away from his position. For more than 17 hours, he evaded the enemy until rescue aircraft could be brought into the area. Mission of those four names, 3,210. Each name a reminder which illuminates for every man who reads it a higher vision of his kind. In one version of the middle of honor, today there are three. This one specifically for the army and there another one for the men of the navy, marine corps and coast guard and finally one for the air force. They all however celebrate the same qualities and actions, qualities and actions which add up to what we call inadequately heroism. It's a quality whose high connotation is safe now as always because those who would pull it down somehow never stand quite tall enough to reach it. It is a quality for all times and all people and for us as Americans, its roots reach back to our first beginnings. Better put steel into the determination of the ragged ranks which moved to defy the British at Concord Bridge in the hearts of the first citizen soldiers who left homes and families gathering to pursue their awakening dream of national independence and individual liberty. Incredible hardships of years of struggle, it led them through Trenton and Saratoga and finally to Yorktown which lit from within those first men to call themselves Americans and to place their lives and all else that they had or might hope for in the balance of freedom was kindled there never to go out. But the hard one independence of the United States was to require reassertion again and again. The next test of whether American sovereignty was to be an accepted and honored fact among the nations of the world came in 1812. The British practice of stopping American ships on the high seas and impressing American seaman into the British Navy was an issue here and the war was primarily a naval one. Its one major land battle has come to be known as the Battle of New Orly. Southsville American woodsmen faced advancing ranks of disciplined British forces who fell bravely but in numbers too great to be born. In the end this brief war of 1812 made its point to the watching world. Americans would live in liberty and individual citizens would enjoy their rights as citizens wherever on earth they might travel. No names appear here from among the ranks of those who fought in 1812. The Medal of Honor had not yet come into being but the qualities that the medal would one day be created to honor these were there as they have always been and these qualities were soon again to be sorely tried. Before it was a century old the nation faced a conflict that shook it to its foundation and marked in deep suffering the beginning of its maturity the civil war against brother and so it was a more tragically exact description would be hard to come by. The soldier in gray fought with fiery bravery that was rooted in a proud way of life a tradition in which honor and gallantry were deeply fundamental. His skill and courage were never depleted but in the end his resources would be. Union forces it first suffered from the effects of overconfidence and disunity in their high commanders but their ultimate mission the preservation of the union was too desperately important to allow prolonged discouragement. On each man in blue a profound responsibility rested whether the nation endured would depend heavily on his faith in the union's cause and his ability to prove that faith in the most demanding of all testing grounds so it was that the nation searching in its agony for the promise of its future found itself looking into the faces of its sons the longings fears and loneliness of a boy coming suddenly to manhood this was so like the developing state of the nation itself soldier and nation together found that their fears and doubts were not so strong as their faith in the cause of a unified country the soldier in blue kept that faith and fought for it with steadfastness and courage and a grateful people in the midst of war forged a medal to honor that courage in the swirling fury of this war of american against american the medal of honor was born because we live in the unity that this tragic war preserved and in national shrines like Gettysburg we memorialize the men of both sides who gave of themselves unreservedly for what they believe to be right aims the last of the men in blue are gone but the union they preserved remains and honors for all time the men who made it possible and right over here is a roll call of names from the years which followed the civil war the time when the nation grew expanding westward the west of making the frontier safe was the regular army out west that meant the cavalry the troopers who rode into that wide country were vastly outnumbered their adversary was often a master of combat a raw hide tough and experienced fighter dangerous to underestimate this era in america's growth has passed into legend but real men lived it many were awarded the medal of honor the names of their battlegrounds are obscure now most of them others will never be forgotten names like little big horn where 24 of the men who stood with custer won the nation's highest award but wherever he fought on the planes among the beauts or in the timber he got the job done that job was simple enough to state it was to establish security and stability across the vast middle reaches of the continent the continental united states was changed from a goal to a fact a full security had only just been established in the great western country within our borders when americans were called on to do battle outside our shores in the spanish-american war america's desire to help the cubans to their independence from spain flamed into action when the battleship main was blown up in Havana harbour teddy rosevelt's rough riders made their famous charge through a storm of whistling lead up the slopes of san juan hill soldiers of this war won the nation's highest tribute the first to win army medals of honor on foreign soil 81 navy and marine corps fighting men were also awarded the medal this first conflict by american ground forces outside our nation's borders was brief but it was a hint of things to come america's growth the prospering of the adventurous idealism on which it was founded these were making the united states a world power a position of world leadership unsought but unavoidable was even then being thrust upon the nation this time it was no isolated conflict this time the challenge to freedom and the involvement of free men in it would have such a scale that a name never used before in man's history was created to describe it the world war from our perspective in history the first world war hundreds of thousands it was the world war the personal level it was perhaps very little different from any war anytime where that sergeant go we're due to move out any take your time sergeant don't hurry on my account where do they get them all there's not that many shells in the lousies let me go out there we can't move to i wish i was home i wonder what they're doing it do something boy was one of mass firepower and jagged trench lines cutting across the heart of france facing and using weapons more deadly than ever in history the men in olive drab pressed the attack each enemy position a step forward bravery is not fearlessness it is going on in spite of fear a million men met this definition across the scarred and flaming fields of france and the bravest of the brave 95 of them joined the roll call of those who wear the medal of honor 95 names a private who silenced four machine gun positions and was killed while charging into the fifth the captain cut down by machine gun fire who led his company to its objective from a stretcher and the legendary sergeant from tennessee whose one-man assault on an enemy position brought in 132 prisoners was over or so many of us in our inexperience believed but a mere heartbeat of history two decades would prove otherwise what remained we paid a little something on account and while we bought time 14 million americans responded by training for the greatest and most destructive war in history so began world war two and before it was over 430 from among the 14 million would win the medal of honor some would come upon their moment on islands of the pacific others in african desert or the steep and hostile terrain of italy but for each it would be a moment when somehow the price that action might exact from them was left unconsidered shoulder to side by their individual commitment to meet the need for that action of loved ones of home of just how much they had to lose my darling we got your letter dated may 25th and as always i've read it a dozen times i keep them all we'll read them together someday johnny is as tall as my shoulder fine and straight and there's more of you in his eyes every day mom and dad are well and they send their love i have your letter here and we'll read it again before sleep meantime try to know how much i love you come back safe to us come back safe and beyond which everything would be remembered in a kaleidoscope of bits and pieces this was the moment when the ramp dropped down and there was the beach they knew what they were to do they knew where and in what sequence they had to do it the thing they didn't know was could it be done it could be and somehow it was but only the meat know what it took from each of them we know only that what it took their strength never stopped growing and the spearheads of that strength penetrated steadily inward toward the enemy's heartland sometimes slowly and then more swiftly his allied strength mounted and that of the enemy was worn away the end was inevitable and finally it came first in europe in the pacific the second conflict to bear the name of world war was over once again hundreds of thousands came gratefully home others remained in ground they had bought and paid for with the ultimate currency of life itself unlike the doboy of world war one the serviceman returning from europe or the pacific was not so quick to believe that the conflict just ended had ended war for all time but he did know this forces which had once again threatened to destroy his way of life had been defeated and that way of life preserved and he knew too that without him it could not have been done korea june 1950 for the first time the armed aggression was that of a communist enemy the answer was clear and emphatic of what became stalemate combat while truce talks war on men did what had to be done constant patrolling fighting again and again over the same bits of splintered ground day and night once again the aggression against free men would be met and thwarted 131 of them were added to the roll call and here in the hall of heroes this is the last on a roll but one this latest section has not yet been completed earlier you saw four of the men whose names appear here like all the rest they are in illustrious company and once again the challenge they face is far from our shores here as in every conflict the american fighting man has faced the effectiveness of all else depends upon him the man himself true the means of his combat the swiftness of his mobility and the staggering volume of his firepower are such as the battlefield has never known before himself and the inner force that animates him these are unchanged he arrives at his objective faster and fresher than any man of arms in history and in his hands are weapons more deadly than any of the past but he well knows that despite all the technological advances in the final analysis there is no easy road he knows too that however hard the road others have traveled it before him and what men have done men can do what enables a man to move forward into a maelstrom of roaring slashing sound and flying steel and flame the mere words in which a commander shapes the orders to do so the knowledge that the others who move forward count on him to be in his place a sense of pride that will not let him do less than his friends or leave them with more to do because of him or the simple consciousness that this is going to be done and it is his time to do it whatever it is whether we name it courage sense of duty bravery or simply guts it is there and they go and get it done because it been awarded the medal of honor in the combat zone you will find the face of courage casually worn anywhere you care to look and so the honor is doubly great for those who from among the brave are singled out in one sense these medals are no more than stylized bits of metal but in another more fundamental sense they are the tangible representation of a priceless intangible this then is in celebration of that something in man which is both indefinable and undeniable for this the hall of heroes exists to say to all who come this way read these names think for a moment of the men whose courage put them here what they did each in his own moment is a statement a shout a cry that echoes for each of us remember and be proud