“Visions of Val
or,” a collection of black-and-white portrait photographs of 140 Medal of Honor recipients went on display April 3 in the McDermott Library of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado. “These photographs are a wonderful homage to America’s most revered heroes,” said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, who took part in the unveiling ceremony. Also attending the event were three Air Force MOH recipients from the Vietnam War: retired Col. Bernard Fisher, retired Lt. Col. Joe Jackson, and retired Lt. Col. Leo Thorsness. Two additional MOH recipients, former Army Sgt. Peter Lemon and former Army Pfc. George Sakato, were also present. Nick Del Calzo, a Denver-based photo journalist, took the portraits starting in 1999. Many of them feature national monuments as backdrops. TriWest Health Alliance is sponsoring the exhibit. (Colorado Springs report by Ann Patton) (For more on Fisher, read Valor: The Valley of Death from the July 1998 issue of Air Force Magazine. For Jackson, read Rescue at Kham Duc from October 2005, and for Thorsness, read Full Day from June 2005.)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.