Medal Of Honor Recipients Recognized In North Texas
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NORTH TEXAS (CBS11) - With Medal of Honor recipients looking on from their seats in a bus, a huge escort of police vehicles and motorcycles roared to life and lumbered onto the highway south of DFW Airport Wednesday afternoon.
More than 500 motorcycles, officers from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies and firefighters from three dozen agencies rode alongside the Medal of Honor recipients. Well wishers cheered them along from the roadside.
"You know more people throughout the U.S. should see that," said Hirosho Miyamura, who earned his medal in hand-to-hand combat in Korea. "And maybe it would instill some kind of patriotic drive within them."
"I wear the medal in honor of every man and woman who has served and are serving. I'm the caretaker," said James Taylor, who earned his medal rescuing wounded soldiers under withering fire in Vietnam. "So when they are waving at us they're waving at all the other men and women that are serving and have served."
Gainesville hosts Medal of Honor recipients every year for parades, visits to schools and dinners.
"To see the town support us, it's really something. I think we all look forward to that," Miyamura said.
Taylor returns for the annual event so often that on this trip he'll meet a boy that feels like it should be his grandson.
"I met Brittany and Bryce when they were young kids in seventh or eighth grade or something like that," he said. "Now they are married and got a young little boy eight months old and I can't wait to see him!"
But to get here, each of these men lived through terrifying and bloody ordeals. There are no war stories today. Among these men, the medal speaks volumes.
"It's silent. We know. We don't talk about our experiences," Miyamura said.