A Forgotten Hero Remembered
In 1892, Luke M. Griswold died. He was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Springfield, MA.
Griswold had been a sailor. He had been in the US Navy, and had served in the Civil War.
Griswold was far from common, however. He was a Medal of Honor recipient.
Sadly, he was also a forgotten Medal of Honor recipient. His grave was a common and plain one. Indeed, there was not even a headstone marking his life and passing. Instead, only a stone with the engraved number “297” marked his resting place.
For over 120 years, that was the situation. And that’s how things would have probably stayed. Except . . . one man found that unacceptable.
Some years ago, J. Donald Morfe of Baltimore, MD – an Army veteran – learned that the final resting places for many Medal of Honor recipients were not marked with proper headstones. He found this troubling.
Since learning of that sad situation Morfe, working together with other volunteers, has convinced various government or private organizations to fund proper headstones for many these heretofore unmarked heroes. They’ve arranged markers for 220 so far. Griswold’s was the latest.
Some might ask, “Why this is important?”
The answer is simple: “Poor is the Nation that has no Heroes, but beggared is the Nation that has, and forgets them.”
Kudos, Mr. Morfe. Many thanks.
Category: Navy, Real Soldiers, Veterans Issues
This is a great story about one man doing great things. I googled this gentleman patriot and found another of his success stories, one from 2005. Evidently, Mr. Morfe has been dedicated to this wonderful effort for quite some time. We all owe him a thank you.
http://www.hoosickhistory.com/biographies/Hawthorn.htm
Thanks for posting that, Hondo. Good story.
What a wonderful thing to do, Mr. Morfe! Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Hondo.
Mega-kudos to Mr. Morfe! You gotta love folks like that!!
Congrats and thanks to Mr. Morfe…. wonderful cause.
Have to be a little careful on Civil War MOHs, though…. their issuance got out of hand enough that I believe early in the 20th Century many were revoked. I read that at one point, an entire unit was awarded MOHs after voluntarily extending their tours of duty to guard prisoners or some such. Not disparaging all of those issued, but let’s just say there sure was a precedent for some of the modern ‘over-awards’ (such as Bosnian Bronze Stars etc.) Cetainly doesn’t diminish Mr. Morfe’s efforts, though.
As I said, not to disparage Mr. Griswold – from CMOH.org, the description:
Served on board the U.S.S. Rhode Island which was engaged in saving the lives of the officers and crew of the Monitor, 30 December 1862. Participating in the hazardous rescue of the officers and crew of the sinking Monitor, Griswold, after rescuing several of the men, became separated in a heavy gale with other members of the cutter that had set out from the Rhode Island, and spent many hours in the small boat at the mercy of the weather and high seas until finally picked up by a schooner 50 miles east of Cape Hatteras.
David: the “Purge of 1917” struck a total of 911 names from the Medal of Honor roll for various reasons, including the 864 members of the 27th Maine who were issued the medal when the entire unit ended up getting them after 300 members extended their enlistments. (Six of these purged were later restored.) Additionally, 17 Navy personnel have also been stricken form the MoH rolls, mostly for later desertion.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/corrections/purge_army.html
http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/corrections/restorations.html
http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/corrections/purge_navy.html
Quite a number of early MoHs (most seem to have been Navy, based on spot-checking) were awarded for non-combat heroism. That’s probably because the current-day Soldier’s Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Medal did not exist until 1926 and 1942, respectively.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Non-combat_recipients_of_the_Medal_of_Honor
That list of non-combat recipients is obviously not complete as Griswold isn’t listed there.
For those who have not done so, looking around the official website is very interesting.
http://www.cmohs.org/
They have some links, to include the Home of Heroes, which show which MOH’s are for non-combat activity.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/
Actually, if you go to the official site and attempt to search for recipients in a particular state, it takes you to Doug Sterner’s Home of Heroes site.
Between the two sites, there is more information than you would likely ever want to know about the honors and the recipients!
Well Done Mr Morfe! Thank you for remembering those who should be justly called heroes. May we be worthy of them all.