Congressional Medal of Honor Society

Awards & Recognitions

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society Awards recognize individuals or organizations who promote and perpetuate the principles upon which our nation is founded; encourage the values of courage, commitment and selfless service; or who have demonstrated patriotism, valor, and fidelity. To be awarded one of these medallions by the Society is a rare occurrence, as only a Medal of Honor Recipient may nominate someone for these Awards.

Each name on these lists represents someone who has their own story to tell.

Medal of Honor Recipient Gary Littrell presents the Patriot Award to General Peter Pace.

Patriot Award

The Patriot Award is the highest award the Society can bestow to an individual. The award is reserved for those persons who, through their life’s work, have distinguished themselves as Americans dedicated to freedom and the ideals represented by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Their dedication to freedom evidences no limitations; their love of fellow man is not qualified; their allegiance to our flag with full understanding of its demands is without reservation.

  • Patriot Award Honorees
    • Charles Johnson, Jr., 1968
    • Bob & Mack Kriendler, 1969
    • Peter J. Brennan, 1971
    • David J. Mahoney, 1972
    • George Meany, 1973
    • J. Strom Thurmond, 1974
    • F. Edward Herbert, 1975
    • Carl B. Albert, 1976
    • Bob Hope, 1976
    • Jimmy Stewart, 1977
    • Will Rogers, 1979
    • Unknown Soldiers, 1981
    • Philip C. Habib, 1981
    • Pres. Ronald W. Reagan, 1983
    • Robert F. Chapman, 1985
    • Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, 1986
    • Gen. William C. Westmoreland, 1986
    • James H. Webb, Jr., 1987
    • Lee A. Iacocca, 1989
    • John G. Rangos, Sr., 1991
    • Vice Pres. Dan Quayle, 1992
    • Lee Greenwood, 1992
    • John Warren, 1993
    • H. Ross Perot, 1993
    • William Coors, 1993
    • Philip M. Hannan, 1994
    • Pres. George H. W. Bush, 1995
    • G. Fred DiBona, Jr., 1995
    • Rep. Floyd D. Spence, 1996
    • Rep. John P. Murtha, Jr., 1996
    • Helen Robson Walton & Family, 1997
    • Sen. Robert Dole, 1998
    • Sen. Elizabeth Dole, 1998
    • Pete Wilson, 1999
    • Gene Fullmer, 2000
    • Pat LaFontaine, 2000
    • Arnold Palmer, 2000
    • Brooks Robinson, 2000
    • David M. Robinson, 2000
    • Richard J. Egan, 2001
    • John R. Hodowal, 2001
    • James F. "Jim" McIngvale, 2001
    • Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, 2002
    • John Barton Mahaffey, 2003
    • Arnold Fisher, 2004
    • Sen. John S. McCain III, 2005
    • Robert W. Haley, M.D., 2005
    • Gen. Peter Pace, 2006
    • Roger Staubach, 2006
    • Gen. Bryan D. Brown, 2007
    • Gen. Colin Powell, 2007
    • Laura Bush, 2008
    • Franklin W. Denius, 2008
    • Richard and Maggie Daley, 2009
    • Rep. Samuel R. Johnson, 2009
    • Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, 2010
    • T. Boone Pickens, 2010
    • Jack Brown, 2011
    • Sen. Mitch McConnell, 2011
    • Gen. Tommy R. Franks, 2011
    • Adm. Thad W. Allen, 2012
    • Theodore F. "Ted" Stevens, Sr., 2012
    • Adm. Eric T. Olson, 2012
    • Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, 2013
    • Ralph M. Hall, 2013
    • Pres. George W. Bush, 2014
    • Justice Samuel Alito, 2014
    • Gov. James R. "Rick" Perry, 2014
    • Samuel Walton, 2015
    • Gen. Joseph Dunford, 2015
    • Gen. James Clapper, 2016
    • Kenneth L. Salazar, 2017
    • James Palmersheim, 2018
    • Morrill and Karen Worcester, 2018
    • Gen. James N. Mattis, 2018
    • Gen. Joseph L. Votel, 2019
    • Gary Sinise, 2020
    • David J. McIntyre, Jr., 2020
    • Corbin J. Robertson, Jr., 2020
    • Amb. Nikki Haley, 2022
    • C. Paul Hilliard, 2023
Medal of Honor Recipient William "Kyle" Carpenter presents the Distinguished Citizen Award to Senator Susan Collins.

Distinguished Citizen Award

The Distinguished Citizen Award is reserved for those persons who, through their life’s work, have distinguished themselves as Americans dedicated to freedom and the ideals represented by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

  • Distinguished Citizen Award Honorees
    • William A. Allen, 1968
    • John J. Wicker, Jr., 1977
    • Col. LaVon P. Linn, 1979
    • Lt. Col. Ruby W. "Lubby" Linn, 1979
    • John "Tex" McCrary, 1983
    • Arnold Fisher, 1985
    • John O. Marsh, Jr., 1989
    • Richard Bernard, 1993
    • Gen. Richard Knowles, 1994
    • Raymond Collins, 1995
    • Robert E. Davis, 1995
    • John F. Floyd, 1996
    • William H. Bowen, 1997
    • Thomas J. Flatley, 1997
    • Gov. Sidney S. McMath, 1997
    • Thomas A. Cottone, Jr., 1998
    • Michael Goldware, 1999
    • Robert H. Rawlings, 2000
    • John "Jack" Metzler, 2001
    • John J. Moakley, 2001
    • Gen. Robert F. McDermott, 2002
    • Steve Weyher, 2003
    • Richard A. Grasso, 2003
    • Col. Steve dePyssler, 2003
    • Gov. Jeb Bush, 2004
    • R. Thomas Browning, 2005
    • Kenneth E. Behring, 2005
    • Anthony J. Principi, 2005
    • Alexander Rangos, 2006
    • Wallace H. Nunn, 2006
    • Dave Stockton, 2006
    • Norman D. Dicks, 2007
    • Brett Favre, 2007
    • Deanna Favre, 2007
    • Wayne Doran, 2007
    • Gen. James T. Conway, 2008
    • Bonnie Dunbar, 2008
    • Robert W. "Bill" Daniels, Jr., 2008
    • Philip F. Anshutz, 2008
    • O. A. "Bum" Phillips, 2008
    • Gen. David Petraeus, 2009
    • Richard L. Duchossois, 2009
    • Gen. James B. Peake, 2010
    • Raymond W. Kelly, 2010
    • James B. Edwards, 2010
    • George P. Shultz, 2011
    • James E. "Ted" Bassett III, 2011
    • Gerard J. Arpey, 2011
    • Adm. Michael G. Mullen and Mrs. Deborah Mullen, 2012
    • Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, 2012
    • Nicholas "Nick" Buoniconti, 2013
    • Kathryn Condon, 2014
    • David Feherty, 2014
    • Gregory W. Abbott, 2014
    • Robert K. Kraft, 2015
    • Stanley S. Hubbard, 2016
    • William J. Hybl, 2017
    • Sen. Susan Collins, 2018
    • Robert Nilsson, 2019
    • Robert C. "Bobby" Newman, 2019
    • Donald D. Rains, 2020
    • Nancy and Rick Kelleher, 2021
    • Dr. Timothy Miller, 2022
    • Wendell Pierce, 2023
Medal of Honor Recipients Drew Dix and Charles Hagemeister present the "Tex" McCrary Award to Chris Wallace.

John R. "Tex" McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism

The “Tex” McCrary Award is reserved for those persons from the fourth estate who, through their life’s work, have distinguished themselves by service or unbiased coverage of the United States Military through journalism in peace and war.

  • "Tex" McCrary Award Honorees
    • Bernard Shaw, 1997
    • Myron L. "Mike" Wallace, 1998
    • Tom Brokaw, 1999
    • Paul Harvey, 2000
    • Timothy J. "Tim" Russert, 2001
    • Thomas E. "Tom" Jarriel, 2002
    • David Bloom, 2003
    • Joseph L. Galloway, 2005
    • Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, Jr., 2005
    • Walter Anderson, 2006
    • Brian Williams, 2007
    • Ben Stein, 2008
    • Martha Raddatz, 2009
    • Alex Quade, 2009
    • Lawrence R. "Rick" Atkinson, 2009
    • Bill O'Reilly, 2009
    • Peggy Noonan, 2010
    • Stars and Stripes, 2011
    • Roger Ailes, 2011
    • Judy Woodruff, 2012
    • Richard Engel, 2013
    • Jamie McIntyre, 2013
    • Timothy Hetherington, 2013
    • James Lehrer, 2014
    • Jake Tapper, 2014
    • Jennifer Griffin, 2015
    • Bob Woodruff, 2015
    • Michael Phillips, 2016
    • Dana Perino, 2017
    • Chris Wallace, 2018
    • Catherine Herridge, 2019
    • W. Hampton Sides, 2020
    • Mark Shields , 2021
    • Courtney Kube, 2022
    • Robin Roberts, 2023
Medal of Honor Recipients Thomas Norris and Leroy Petry present Glen Powell with the Bob Hope Award for Entertainment.

Bob Hope Award for Entertainment

The Bob Hope Award is reserved for those persons who, through their life’s work in the entertainment industry, have distinguished themselves by outstanding service to or positive portrayal of the United States Military in literature or film.

Bob Hope dedicated much of his 80-year career to entertaining American troops both at home and abroad. He went straight to the center of a crisis to deliver a reminder of home to those serving our country, just when they needed it most. Bob Hope used his talents to heal by showing his compassion, empathy, uplifting spirit, and respect for country.

  • Bob Hope Award Honorees
    • Denzel Washington, 1996
    • Billy Ray Cyrus, 1997
    • General Munday, 1998
    • Stephen E. Ambrose, 1999
    • Bill Mauldin, 2000
    • John C. McDermott, 2001
    • VA-National Medical Musical Group, 2002
    • Mike Radford, 2003
    • Wayne Newton, 2005
    • Keith Lockhart, 2006
    • Gary Sinise, 2007
    • Jon Voight, 2008
    • Clint Eastwood, 2008
    • Charles Durning, 2009
    • Bill Kurtis, 2009
    • Steve Amerson, 2009
    • Stephen Lang, 2010
    • Robert Duvall, 2010
    • Connie Stevens, 2011
    • Ann-Margret, 2011
    • Trace Adkins, 2011
    • Joseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr., 2012
    • Tom Selleck, 2013
    • Mark Wahlberg, 2014
    • Oak Ridge Boys, 2015
    • Robert Irvine, 2015
    • Randall Wallace, 2015
    • Bradley Cooper, 2016
    • John Krasinski, 2016
    • Tony Orlando, 2016
    • Jeffrey M. "Jeff" Shaara, 2017
    • Terry Fator, 2017
    • Jay Leno, 2018
    • Dale Dye, Jr., 2018
    • George Strait, 2019
    • Rob Riggle, 2021
    • Glen Powell, 2022
    • Tom Hanks, 2023