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As part of an Armed Forces Entertainment tour, two Medal of Honor recipients visited wounded warriors and the current class of the Kisling Noncommissioned Officer Academy Oct. 23.
Retired Army Col. Robert Howard and Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell flew to Germany at the invitation of the Department of Defense to share their knowledge of military service with others.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to share our experiences and say thank you to servicemembers,” Colonel Howard said. “We are both retired military and devoted over half our lives to serving our great country, so we just want to share those experiences with our fellow servicemembers.”
For Command Sergeant Major Littrell, two main reasons outlined his visit.
“I have two goals while I’m out here,” he said. “One is just to say thank you. The second is to boost morale. If I could boost one service-member’s morale and convey to them my sincere thanks for their service, then I’ve accomplished my mission.”
The MOH recipients first stopped at the NCOA on Kapaun to share stories with the students and faculty and offer words of motivation and encouragement.
Among the topics discussed in the forum were leadership and responsibility.
“As an NCO, you have the sincere responsibility of leadership and should take that leadership seriously,” Command Sergeant Major Littrell said. “If you’re a leader, you have the health, welfare, comfort and training of your subordinates, and you need to make sure you do your job properly.”
When addressing the NCOs, Colonel Howard talked about the importance of leadership, but also spent time speaking about commitment to service and loyalty and trust in fellow servicemembers.
The rest of the visit was geared toward visiting with wounded warriors at the 86th Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility on Ramstein, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the United Service Organizations’ Wounded Warrior Center on LRMC.
While visiting with the wounded warriors, the MOH recipients conveyed their
gratitude and thanks.
“With the wounded warriors, it’s really more about saying ‘thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your commitment. We appreciate your keeping us free,’” Command Sergeant Major Littrell said.
Even though the two have visited many servicemembers around the world, both agree it’s important.
“Colonel Howard and I visit troops quite often, as we’ve made numerous trips to Afghanistan, Iraq and Djibouti, Africa,” he said. “As retired military, it’s always good for us to visit the active-duty. And, it’s good for the young men and women to see that us old men still have a sense of humor, laugh and have a good time.”
Both Colonel Howard and Command Sergeant Major Littrell received the MOH for their efforts during the Vietnam conflict.
On the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Web site, Colonel Howard’s citation reads, “With complete disregard for his safety, Howard crawled from position to position, administering first aid to the wounded, giving encouragement to the defenders and directing their fire on the encircling enemy.”
He received his MOH on March 2, 1971.
On the same Web site, Command Sergeant Major Littrell’s citation states, “Littrell exhibited near superhuman endurance as he single-handedly bolstered the besieged battalion. Through his indomitable courage and complete disregard for his safety, he averted excessive loss of life and injury to the members of the battalion.”
He received his medal on Oct. 15, 1973.
The first MOH was given to Army Pvt. Jacob Parrott, and five others, on March 25, 1863. Currently, there are 3,448 MOH recipients, 94 of whom are still alive today. For more information on these two medal recipients, as well as others, visit the MOH Web site at www.cmohs.org.
