Military Officer - April 2007 - (Page 85) pagesofhistory Dunham’s Valor For saving the lives of his fellow Marines at a checkpoint in Iraq and making the ultimate sacrifice, Cpl. Jason Dunham has posthumously received the Medal of Honor. I n January, Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush in a White House ceremony attended by the Dunham family, Vice President Dick Cheney, several senators, and Marines. In April 2004, Dunham, a machine gunner for Company K, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, was manning a checkpoint in Karabilah, Iraq, when an insurgent leapt from his car and attacked him. Dunham, seeing his attacker had dropped a live grenade, dove to the ground and covered the explosive with his helmet. He died from his wounds eight days later at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Dunham’s enlistment was to end in June, but he voluntarily extended his stay so he could help his comrades. A native of Scio, N.Y., Dunham is the second American to receive the Medal of Honor for service in Iraq. island. The museum includes aircraft from World War II and educational interpretations of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Doolittle Raid on Japan, and the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. Visitors can watch an introductory film of the Dec. 7 attack, which details the battle with original footage. They also can tour additional hangars and see evidence of the attack that still exists today: shrapnel marks on concrete walls and bullet holes from Japanese strafing visible in glass panels of the hangar doors. The new displays form the first phase of a $90-million future museum complex. Pearl Harbor Museum new museum on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island showcases World War II battles in the Pacific. The Pacific Aviation Museum (www.pacifica viationmuseum.org) opened Dec. 7, 2006, and is housed in the historic hangars on the THIS MONTH IN HISTORY ■ On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began as Con- A T World War I Veterans he VA estimates that fewer than 10 American veterans of World War I are living today, 90 years after the U.S. declared war on Germany. All are more than 100 years old. The department doesn’t know the exact number because census takers stopped asking the question in 1990. Many paper records from World War I were destroyed in a fire at a St. Louis national archives building in the 1970s. A new World War I museum opened in Kansas City, Mo., in December 2006, with more than 49,000 artifacts. MO APRIL 2007 Cpl. Jason Dunham’s parents hold a portrait of their son, the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. federate soldiers opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. Two days later, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for volunteers to put down the Southern “insurrection.” PHOTO: DON HEUPEL/AP MILITARY OFFICER 85 http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org
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