Medal of Honor in the context of "Audie Murphy"

Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964), also known by his rank as Sergeant York, was an American soldier who was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, gathering 35 machine guns, killing at least 25 enemy soldiers, and capturing 132 prisoners. York's Medal of Honor action occurred during the United States-led portion of the Meuse–Argonne offensive in France, which was intended to breach the Hindenburg line and force the Germans to surrender. He earned decorations from several Allied countries during the war, including France, Italy, and Montenegro.

York was born in rural Tennessee, in what is now the community of Pall Mall in Fentress County. His parents farmed, and his father also worked as a blacksmith. The 11 York children had minimal schooling because they helped provide for the family, including hunting, fishing, and working as laborers. After the death of his father, York assisted in caring for his younger siblings and found work as a blacksmith. Despite being a regular churchgoer, York also drank heavily and was prone to fistfights. After a 1914 conversion experience, he vowed to improve and became even more devoted to the Church of Christ in Christian Union. York was drafted during World War I; he initially claimed conscientious objector status on the grounds that his religious denomination forbade violence. Persuaded that his religion was not incompatible with military service, York joined the 82nd Division as an infantry private and went to France in 1918.

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945 during WWII; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and awarded it for his WWII service in the Philippines. He is one of only five people to hold the rank of General of the Army, and the only person to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army.

MacArthur, the son of Medal of Honor recipient Arthur MacArthur Jr., was raised on Army posts in the Old West. He was valedictorian of the West Texas Military Academy, and First Captain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated first in his class in 1903. During the 1914 U.S. occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. In 1917, he was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. On the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, where he initiated a series of reforms. His next posting was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, MacArthur became the Army's youngest major general at the age of 45, and in 1930 was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He was involved in the controversial expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters in Washington, D.C., in 1932, and organized the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1935, MacArthur was appointed Military Advisor to the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He retired from the Army in 1937, but continued as an advisor and as a Field Marshal in the Philippine Army from 1936.

Camp Bondsteel is the operation headquarters of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) in Kosovo. It is located near Ferizaj in southeastern Kosovo. It is the Regional Command-East headed by the United States Army (U.S. Army) and it is supported by troops from Greece, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey. The base is named after U.S. Army Staff Sergeant James L. Bondsteel, who is a Medal of Honor recipient.

The camp occupies 955 acres (1.492 sq mi) of land. During the construction of the base, two hills were flattened and the valley between them was filled. In August 1999, 52 helipads were constructed on the facility's west perimeter to handle helicopter aviation. The camp is built mainly of wooden, semipermanent SEA (Southeast Asian) huts and is surrounded by a 2.5 m (8.2 ft) high earthen wall.

An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain armed air forces, it may pertain to a defined and established enlisted rank. An airman might occasionally referred to as a soldier in different definitions. In 1873 it referred only to males who flew balloons during the beginning of modern aviation history. For a official military position, it conforms to the conventions of Standard English, and in turn, both male, and female participants.

A subtype, referred to as an aviator, is often designated for civilian use. Since the United States Air Force was established in 1947, all of the various ranks of "airman" have always included women, and in this context, the word "man" means "human being". Notably the term airman is commonly known as "dirtbag airman" in the United States after a United States Air Force aviator used urine to stop a fire while fighting Nazi planes in Nazi Germany and later received the Medal of Honor. It is common for ones Navy to refer to a airman as a aviator.

Heartbreak Ridge is a 1986 American war film directed, produced by, and starring Clint Eastwood. The film co-stars Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, and Mario Van Peebles, and was released in the United States on December 5, 1986. The story centers on a U.S. Marine nearing retirement who gets a platoon of undisciplined Marines into shape and leads them during the American invasion of Grenada in 1983.

The title comes from the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge in the Korean War, in which Eastwood's character had been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Lawton is a city in and the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in western Oklahoma, approximately 87 mi (140 km) southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton, Oklahoma, metropolitan statistical area. According to the 2020 census, Lawton's population was 90,381, making it the sixth-largest city in the state, and the largest in Western Oklahoma.

Developed on former reservation lands of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache peoples, Lawton was incorporated in 1901. It was named after Major General Henry Ware Lawton, who served in the Civil War, where he earned the Medal of Honor, and was killed in action in the Philippine–American War. Lawton's landscape is typical of the Great Plains, with flat topography and gently rolling hills, while the area north of the city is marked by the Wichita Mountains.

Phillips Academy, also known as Andover, is a private, co-educational, boarding-and-day, college-preparatory school located in Andover, Massachusetts, near Boston. One of the highest-ranked high schools in the world, Phillips Academy is the oldest incorporated academy in the United States, having been founded in 1778. The school enrolls approximately 1,150 students in grades 9 through 12, including postgraduate students. It is part of the Eight Schools Association and the Ten Schools Admission Organization.

Phillips Academy has educated a distinguished list of notable alumni through its history, including American presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, several members of the Washington family and Kennedy family, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Josiah Quincy III, Philip K. Wrigley, A. Bartlett Giamatti, Benjamin Spock, Frank Stella, Bill Belichick, foreign heads of state, members of Congress, five Nobel laureates and six Medal of Honor recipients, and numerous prominent artists, athletes, and businesspersons.

Arthur MacArthur Jr. (June 2, 1845 – September 5, 1912) was a lieutenant general of the United States Army. He became the military Governor-General of the American-occupied Philippines in 1900; his term ended a year later due to clashes with the civilian governor, future-U.S. President William Howard Taft.

His son, Douglas MacArthur, was one of only five men promoted to the five-star rank of General of the Army during World War II. In addition to their both being promoted to the rank of general officer, Arthur MacArthur Jr. and Douglas MacArthur also share the distinction of having been the first father and son to each be awarded a Medal of Honor.