Honoring, Remembering 12 Lubbock area Medal of Honor recipients on Medal of Honor Day

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Thursday, at Lubbock’s monument of courage, 12 Medal Of Honor recipients were honored and remembered for their sacrifices.

“Today is Medal of Honor day, so we are honoring the 12 Medal of Honor recipients within our region,” said Benny Guerrero, a Marine, and Commander Of Lubbock’s Veterans Of Foreign Wars (VFW).

Guerrero led the ceremony honoring 12 veterans from four different wars, sharing their stories. Remembering these soldiers, something Guerrero says is important.

“What makes a Medal of Honor recipient? Well, it’s--just imagine the most horrific act or the most heroic act under our most horrible situation, and no one expecting you to live, but you still gonna go do it,” said Guerrero, “and those are the people who actually get awarded the Medal of Honor.”

Keeping their memory and stories alive, Guerreros said comes in many forms. One example; naming V.A. hospitals and clinics after these Medal of Honor recipients.

Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center is located in Amarillo. Guerrero said, “Medal of Honor recipient Marine Corporal (Creek) died in Vietnam by jumping on a grenade and saving his buddies lives. (He was) only 19 years old, the youngest Medal of Honor recipient from the state of Texas.”

The Permian Basin is providing a similar honor, changing its hospital’s name to Wilson And Young. Here on the South Plains Lubbock’s new V.A. hospital will join the practice.

“We’re going to advocate for changing that to three Medal of Honor recipients here. So it would be the Knight, Wallace, Davis Memorial Hospital. So we’ll be advocating that and you’ll see us going out there and asking for your support to do that.”

He said the hospital near fourth and Indiana should be accepting patients in the summer.

Guerrero said the VFW will host a Memorial Day Celebration and on April 3, 2021, the VFW will honor our women soldiers and veterans.

You can find more information on the VFW’s Facebook page, click here.

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