BOSTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- To those U.S. servicemen who received the nation's highest honor for bravery in the face of enemy fire, the terrorists who carried out the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington are cowards who have only made America stronger.
"You attack the United States, you better watch out," said retired Army Col. Lewis Millett, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for leading a bayonet charge in Korea in 1951. "You wake a sleeping giant."
The 80-year-old native of Dartmouth, Mass., is one of more than 70 Medal of Honor recipients gathering Wednesday for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's annual convention.
The convention was originally scheduled for Sept. 12-16 but was postponed after air travel was shut down as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"The recipients still wanted to come last month, terrorists or no terrorists," Tom Lyons, a Marine veteran of Vietnam and chairman of the committee to bring the convention to Boston, told the Boston Herald.
"We're not going to forget our heroes and we're fortunate to have them in the city of Boston," Lyons said.
"It always amazes me that these cowards will do things like that," Millett said. "I led a bayonet charge. You have to get up in front of everybody and charge. I can't stand these people who killed innocent men, women and children."
Millett and 92-year-old John Finn, the nation's oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, were traveling from California to Boston for the convention as a way to send a message to the terrorists.
"This just makes us stronger," Millett said. "It just makes us realize we are a free country and the only reason why is because people sacrificed and gave us that freedom."
There are 149 surviving Medal of Honor recipients -- including Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Mass., and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. A total of 71 were expected to attend this year's convention, which runs through Sunday.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society was formed in 1946 by World War II recipients, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1958 establishing the Congressional Medal of Honor Society of the United States.
Those visiting Boston planned to go to several area schools on Thursday to talk to children about their experiences.
"It's always a very rewarding day to talk to these kids," said CMOHS President Harvey C. "Barney" Barnum Jr., a retired Marine colonel and Medal of Honor recipient for heroism in Vietnam in 1965. Barnum now serves as deputy secretary of the Navy.
Later Thursday, the recipients were to attend a public reception at the Massachusetts Statehouse. The group will also have its annual Patriot Award reception and dinner Friday night at the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center.
On Saturday the CMOHS will honor its late members at a memorial service at the Old North Church, and on Sunday they will attend a Vietnam Memorial mass at St. Brigid Church in South Boston, followed by renaming of M Street Park in South Boston to Medal of Honor Park.
"We wanted to have something permanent in the city that would be a constant reminder to people of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's visit to Boston," Lyons told the Herald.
"Our hope is to tie it in with the Vietnam Memorial and to give everyone the knowledge that this park is very special," he said.
The Vietnam Memorial in South Boston, dedicated in 1981, was the first of its kind in the nation. The national Vietnam memorial in Washington was completed a year later.
Since 1861, the Medal of Honor has been awarded to 3,436 men and one woman. Of the 149 living recipients, 60 are from WWII, 21 from Korea and 68 from Vietnam. The largest number of medals, 1,522, was awarded during the Civil War.
The Army has awarded 2,350 Medals of Honor, the Navy 745, the Marine Corps 296, the Army Air Corps 42, the Air Force 17, and the Coast Guard one.
Only eight civilians have won the award, including William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, an Army scout during the Indian wars, and Dr. Mary E. Walker, a surgeon during the Civil War. They were among 911 people stripped of the honor by a review board in 1917, but both were reinstated by Congress decades after their deaths.
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( For more information see the cmohs.org Web site.)
