In honor of the Army’s 250th birthday, the Association of the U.S. Army’s highest award for distinguished and selfless service is being presented this year to Army recipients of the Medal of Honor.

This isn’t the first time the George Catlett Marshall Medal has gone to a group instead of a person. Last year, the Marshall Medal was awarded to The Army Noncommissioned Officer. It was awarded to The Army Family in 2020 and to The American Soldier in 2004.

“From the American Revolution to today, U.S. Army soldiers have fought for and defended this nation with courage and skill,” said retired Gen. Bob Brown, AUSA president and CEO. “Among those legions of heroes is this special group of soldiers who displayed bravery, sacrifice and integrity above and beyond the call of duty in the brutal and unforgiving crucible of combat.”

The award will be presented at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition Oct. 13–15 in Washington, D.C.

“Any of these recipients would humbly tell you they were merely doing their job, but we recognize their valor and gallantry, their willingness to sacrifice themselves for others, and their dedication to their fellow soldiers,” Brown said. “Their stories move and inspire us and generations to come, and I am honored to recognize them with AUSA’s highest award.”

Of the 3,528 people who have received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, 2,460 were soldiers. Forty-four Army recipients are living today, including 12 who were honored for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Each recipient has a story to tell—from the very first Medal of Honor ever presented to the most recent—and AUSA is dedicated to helping tell those stories.

The very first Medal of Honor was presented to a soldier, Pvt. Jacob Parrott, who was one of 24 men who volunteered during the Civil War to go nearly 200 miles into Confederate territory to steal a train and destroy tracks behind them as they sped north, all part of a plan to prevent reinforcements from interfering with an attempted capture of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Former Staff Sgt. Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, who fought waves of enemy soldiers before being captured and held for over two years during the Korean War, received the only Medal of Honor classified as top secret—kept quiet until his release from a prisoner-of-war camp.

Capt. Tom Custer was the first soldier in U.S. history to earn two Medals of Honor for his actions during the Civil War, while Dr. Mary Walker, one of the first women to earn a medical degree in America and who served as a contract surgeon for the U.S. Army during the Civil War, is the only woman to receive the medal.

Cpl. Tibor Rubin was the only Holocaust survivor to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Emigrating to the U.S. after World War II and joining the Army, Rubin deployed to Korea. In July 1950, Rubin single-handedly fought off a North Korean assault, inflicting a staggering number of enemy casualties. When captured by the enemy, he risked his life to gather food for his fellow prisoners.

Retired Col. Roger Donlon, who disregarded his own wounds and led his 12-man Green Beret team as they held off an attack by a reinforced battalion of Viet Cong fighters in July 1964, was the first person in the Vietnam War and the first Green Beret to receive the Medal of Honor.

Former Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, who refused to let enemy fighters carry off a fellow wounded soldier in Afghanistan, was the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor in nearly 40 years.

These are just a few of the thousands of stories of valor and sacrifice that AUSA is proud to help share through the presentation of this year’s Marshall Medal.

The Marshall Medal, awarded annually by AUSA since 1960, is named for General of the Army George Catlett Marshall Jr., a former Army chief of staff who also served as secretary of state, secretary of defense and U.S. special envoy to China in a public service career that spanned the Spanish-American War through the Truman administration.

Past recipients of the Marshall Medal include Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush; General of the Army Omar Bradley; and retired Army Gens. Gordon Sullivan, Lyman Lemnitzer, Colin Powell, Bernard Rogers, Maxwell Taylor, John Vessey Jr., Martin Dempsey and Eric Shinseki.

Other recipients include two former defense secretaries who also served as directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates; Duke University head basketball coach and U.S. Military Academy graduate Michael Krzyzewski; comedian Bob Hope; and actor Gary Sinise.