Medal of Honor Day 2009

The Medal of Honor has been awarded only 3,448 times since the Civil War, and just 98 recipients are living today.

One of them, Col. Robert Howard, has written a special guest column for Stars and Stripes. Read it here.

And here's a little bit about Col. Howard:

As one of America's most decorated soldiers, Col. Robert Howard served five tours in Vietnam and is the only soldier in our nation's history to be nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor three times for three separate actions within a 13-month period.

During Vietnam, he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and spent most of his five tours in the Special Operations Group, which ran classified cross-border operations into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. These men carried out some of the most daring and dangerous missions ever conducted by the U.S. military.

Wounded 14 times in 54 months of combat duty in Vietnam, Robert Howard was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, The Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and eight Purple Hearts.