March 25, 2013, marks the 150th anniversary of the first Medal of Honor awarded. To mark this occasion, Medal of Honor recipients will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at 2:00 p.m. Twenty Medal of Honor recipients are expected to be in attendance.
Immediately following the wreath ceremony, the Citizen Service Before Self Honors will be presented the Women In Military Service for America Memorial by our nation's most honored heroes-the 80 living Medal of Honor recipients.
The four honorees for the Citizen Service Before Self Honors (CSBSH) are: 1) Father Joe Carroll, (San Diego, California) - Developed and ran a multi-faceted homeless support center offering assistance, counseling and job training, that is now modeled throughout the U.S.; 2) Marcos Ugarte, (Troutdale, Oregon) - 15-year-old boy who saved a younger neighbor from a burning home by climbing a ladder, pushing his way through a window and coaxing the boy to safety; 3) Jesse Shaffer III and 4) Jesse Shaffer IV, (Braithwaite, Louisiana) - During Hurricane Isaac, this father-and-son team used their boat to rescue 120 people from their flood-ravaged town after official rescues were called off.
These four honorees were chosen by Medal of Honor recipients from a pool of 23 finalists, announced last month in the CSBSH program that collected hundreds of hero nominations from across the U.S. between September and December 2012. It's all part of the Medal of Honor Society and Foundation's mission to share the values of the medal with all Americans. A complete list of the 23 finalists is available on the website,
http://citizenservicebeforeselfhonors.org