Medal of Honor recipients visit Airmen, wounded warriors in Germany

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Amanda Dick
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
KAISERSLAUTERN MILITARY COMMUNITY, Germany (AFNS) --  Two Medal of Honor recipients visited wounded warriors and Airmen here Oct. 23 as part of an Armed Forces Entertainment tour.

Retired Army Col. Robert Howard and Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell, who both received the nation's highest military decoration for actions during the Vietnam conflict, were invited to join the tour to share their knowledge of military service with overseas servicemembers
.
"We are pleased to have the opportunity to share our experiences and say thank you to servicemembers," Colonel Howard said. "We are both retired military and devoted over half our lives to serving our great country, so we just want to share those experiences with our fellow servicemembers."

For Sergeant Major Littrell, the visit allowed him to accomplish two goals.

"One is just to say thank you," he said. "The second is to boost morale. If I could boost one servicemember's morale and convey to them my sincere thanks for their service, then I've accomplished my mission."

The Medal of Honor recipients first stop was at the Kisling Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Kapaun Air Station. Here they shared stories with the current class and faculty and discussed leadership and responsibility.

"As an NCO, you have the sincere responsibility of leadership and should take that leadership seriously," Sergeant Major Littrell said. "If you're a leader, you have the health, welfare, comfort and training of your subordinates, and you need to make sure you do your job properly."

Colonel Howard also talked about the importance of leadership and spent time speaking about commitment to service and loyalty and trust in fellow servicemembers.

The two men then visited wounded warriors at the 86th Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility on Ramstein Air Base, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and its United Service Organization Wounded Warrior Center.

"With the wounded warriors, it's really more about saying 'thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your commitment. We appreciate your keeping us free,'" Sergeant Major Littrell said.

Though the two men have visited many servicemembers around the world, both agree it's still an important and gratifying thing to do.

"Colonel Howard and I visit troops quite often, as we've made numerous trips to Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa," Sergeant Major Littrell said. "As retired military, it's always good for us to visit the active duty. And, it's good for the young men and women to see that us old men still have a sense of humor, laugh and have a good time."

For more information on these two Medal of Honor recipients, as well as others, visit the Medal of Honor Web site at http://www.cmohs.org.