Citizen Service Before Self Honors nominations close soon

Every year, in conjunction with the National Medal of Honor Day*, three United States citizens will be awarded Citizen Service Before Self Honors near the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery. They will receive this award from a group of Americans whose actions have defined the word courage - the members of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society who have received our nation’s highest and most prestigious award for valor, the Medal of Honor. The living Medal recipients of this exclusive Society now number fewer than 90.

Process, Criteria, & Timeline
Timeline
Open nominations Monday, November 14, 2024
Close nominations Friday, February 10, 2025
Finalists announcement Monday, February 27, 2025
Recipients announcement Monday, March 12, 2025
Recipients honored Friday, March 23, 2025

Criteria
WHO CAN NOMINATE: Any American who is aware of a fellow citizen, neighbor, co-worker, or ordinary American, a hero among us, who without the expectation of fame or reward, has placed others before self in some extraordinary way.

WHO CAN BE NOMINATED: Any United States civilian who through a singular act of extraordinary heroism or through a prolonged series of acts, clearly demonstrated a willingness to place his or her own life at risk for others. In all cases, the actions being honored must epitomize the concept of “service above self” and must be performed “above and beyond” one’s professional or vocational area of responsibility or conduct.

Please note: nominees who are deceased are fully eligible. Nominees must be a U.S. citizen. A singular act of heroism must have occurred within the last three years. A series of acts of long-term selfless service must have been ongoing within the last three years.

HOW TO ENTER: Click on NOMINATION FORM, fill it out, then click SUBMIT.

DEADLINE: Nominations must be received by Friday, February 10, 2012.

Selection Process
A panel, to include Medal of Honor recipient representation, will consider all nominations and select 20 national finalists. From among those finalists, a second panel of Medal of Honor recipients will select three individuals to receive Citizen Service Before Self Honors at a ceremony on Friday, March 23, 2025 to be held at Arlington Cemetery near the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, VA.

National Medal of Honor Day
Date: Friday, March 23, 2012*
*Note: National Medal of Honor Day (March 25) is on a Sunday and will be celebrated on Friday, March 23, 2012.

Medal of Honor Recipient John F. Baker passes away at 66

Army Master Sgt. John F. Baker Jr

Army Master Sgt. John F. Baker Jr., who received the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of eight of his fellow Soldiers, killing 10 Viet Cong and knocking out six machine-gun bunkers after his unit was ambushed Nov. 5, 1966, in Vietnam, died Friday evening (1/20/2012) after collapsing in his Northeast Richland home (SC). He was 66.

During the Vietnam War, Baker was a 5-foot-2-inches tall, 105-pound "tunnel rat" - a Soldier who, armed with only a pistol and a flashlight, would crawl into enemy tunnels to clear them. He was one of only 239 servicemembers to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. And he was the last Army Soldier with ties to South Carolina to receive the medal from any conflict.

In 1989, Baker retired from the U.S. Army as a master sergeant after serving 24 years.

After that, he went to work as a computer analyst for the Veterans Affairs hospital in Columbia, S.C., one of the largest VA hospitals in the country.

He long served as vice president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. And he was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002 to serve on the National Cemetery Association's advisory committee on cemeteries and memorials.

He accepted invitations to speak at more than 1,000 public schools. The Interstate 280 Bridge was renamed Baker Bridge.

"He is the last of a long legacy of great Army recipients who lived in South Carolina," said retired Marine Maj. Gen. James. E Livingston of Charleston, also a Medal of Honor recipient.

A service will be held Friday at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C. Burial with full military rights will be at a later day in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Visitation will be the day before the service at Dunbar Funeral Home.

Army Master Sgt. John F. Baker Jr

Baker entered the U.S. Army in Moline, Illinois, serving as a private in A Company, 2nd Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Division. In Vietnam, he took part in Operation Attleboro which began in September 1966. On November 5, 1966, Baker and his unit were called to assist another squad who were taking enemy fire. En route, A Company began to take fire and lost their lead soldier. Together with two other soldiers, Baker took over the head of the column and assisted in destroying two enemy positions. They were moving to take two others when a hand grenade knocked Baker off of his feet.

With the two other soldiers wounded, Baker "single handedly" destroyed another bunker before recovering his comrades. Despite taking further fire from enemy bunkers and snipers, he continually fell back to replenish ammunition and take back several wounded. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor along with Captain Robert F. Foley, who also received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle. When awarding the medal, President Lyndon B Johnson stated:

“The battlefield is the scarred and the lonely landscape of man's greatest failure. But is a place where heroes walk. Today we come here to the East Room of the White House to honor two soldiers, two soldiers who—in the same battle and at the same time—met the surpassing tests of their lives with acts of courage far beyond the call of duty. Captain Foley and Sergeant Baker fought in the same company. Now, together, they join the noblest company of them all. They fought because their Nation believed that only by honoring its commitments, and only by denying aggression its conquest, could the conditions of peace be created in Southeast Asia and the world."

See more at the John Baker Jr. page at the Pritzker Military Library with Ed Tracy:

Pritzker Military Library | Medal of Honor with Ed Tracy

Medal of Honor recipient Mike Colalillo passes away at 86

President Harry S. Truman and PFC Mike Colalillo

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society announces that Mike Colalillo, Medal of Honor recipient, passed away Friday, December 30, 2011, in Duluth, Minnesota at age 86.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman at a ceremony at the White House on December 18, 1945. His heroic action occurred near Untergriesheim, Germany on April 7, 1945. Private First Class Colalillo served as a rifleman in the Second Squad, Second Platoon, Company C, First Battalion, 398th Infantry, 100th Infantry Division.

He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action. While he and his company were pinned down under heavy enemy fire, he stood up, shouted to the company to follow, and ran forward in the wake of a supporting tank, firing his machine pistol. Inspired by his example, his comrades advanced in the face of savage enemy fire. He continued to fight and advance against the enemy, using all means of force at his disposal. He then remained behind to help a seriously wounded comrade.

Funeral services are pending. There are 84 recipients alive today.

SOURCE Congressional Medal of Honor Society

Private Colalillo's official Medal of Honor citation reads:

Private First Class Mike Colalillo, 2d Squad, 2d Platoon, Co. C, 1st Battalion, 398th Infantry, 100th Infantry Division was pinned down with other members of his company during an attack against strong enemy positions on 7 April 2025 in the vicinity of Untergriesheim, Germany. Heavy artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire made any move hazardous when he stood up, shouted to his company to follow, and ran forward in the wake of a supporting tank, firing his machine pistol. Inspired by his example, his comrades advanced in the face of savage enemy fire. When his weapon was struck by shrapnel and rendered useless, he climbed to the deck of a friendly tank, manned an exposed machine gun on the turret of the vehicle, and, while bullets rattled around him, fired at an enemy emplacement with such devastating accuracy that he killed or wounded at least 10 hostile soldiers and destroyed their machine gun. Maintaining his extremely dangerous post as the tank forged ahead, he blasted three more positions, destroyed another machine gun emplacement and silenced all resistance in this area, killing at least three and wounding an undetermined number of riflemen as they fled. His machine gun eventually jammed; so he secured a submachine gun from the tank crew to continue his attack on foot. When our armored forces exhausted their ammunition and the order to withdraw was given, he remained behind to help a seriously wounded comrade over several hundred yards of open terrain rocked by an intense enemy artillery and mortar barrage. By his intrepidity and inspiring courage Private First Class Colalillo gave tremendous impetus to his company's attack, killed or wounded 25 of the enemy in bitter fighting, and assisted a wounded soldier in reaching the American lines at great risk to his own life.

PFC Mike Colalillo

Mike Colalillo, one of nine children, was born shortly after his parents emigrated from Italy. He grew up in a tough neighborhood in Duluth, Minnesota, and left high school without graduating. Drafted in 1944, he was an eighteen-year-old private when he landed with the 100th Army Infantry Division at Marseille that October. His unit was engaged in constant combat over the next few months as it pushed up through central France and into Germany. Through the heartbreak of losing his comrades killed in the fighting, Colalillo hung on to memories of the rare funny moments as well: stealing chickens from a rundown farm, smoking cigars from a captured cigar factory.

After performing his heroic action near Untergriesheim, Germany on April 7, 1945, Colalillo was fighting on the line a few weeks later when a pair of MPs appeared and told him that his commanding officer wanted to see him. Naturally, Colalillo wondered what he had done to get arrested, but when he arrived at company headquarters, his captain told him that he’d been recommended for the Medal of Honor. He was ordered to stay around division headquarters for the next few months so that nothing would happen to him before the presentation. He was sent home after the bombing of Hiroshima and honored by President Harry Truman at the White House on December 18, 1945. NBC: The Daily Nightly

Michael Colalillo from Congressional Medal of Honor on Vimeo.