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Medal of Honor Recipient Gets Diploma at 90
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Decades After His Medal of Honor, a H.S. Diploma
Decorated Veteran Bob Maxwell Walked With Bend HS Class
BEND, Ore. — He’s the most highly decorated veteran in Oregon, but on Saturday,, 90-year-old Bob Maxwell got an honor he’s waited more than 70 years for.
On Saturday afternoon, Oregon’s only living Medal of Honor recipient graduated with Bend Senior High School’s Class of 2011.
At 15, he wasn’t tromping down school hallways. In fact, he wasn’t in school at all. After seventh grade, Maxwell was taken out of school to work on his family’s farm in Kansas, during the Great Depression.
“It was just accepted in those days,” Maxwell said Friday. “When a boy was old enough to do a man’s work, that’s what he did.”
But don’t call him a dropout.
Maxwell’s education didn’t stop when he left school. He got his GED, even taught at Bend High back in the ’50s.
One lesson the Medal of Honor recipient continues to teach every day — modesty. He was awarded the medal of honor after he threw himself on a live grenade in France, saving the rest of his platoon from certain death.
“For him to consider walking with Bend High School as a great honor — wow, we’re the one honored,” said BHS Principal H.D. Wedell. “Yet, because of his humility, he feels honored.”
Honored, but not quite sure he deserved to toss his cap with the rest of the 2011 graduates.
“In some ways, I feel like it’s a diploma that I haven’t earned,” Maxwell said. “But then I look back over the 73 years behind me, and I guess I have accumulated enough knowledge and skills to say that I’ve earned it.”
A man with heroic accomplishments, yet still so humble. It’s Maxwell’s selflessness that allows his soon-to-be fellow graduates to chase the American dream.
“They can do that, because of the things that Bob has done,” said Wedell. “He’s laid his life down, so that our kids can be part of that.”
But will there be room in Oregon’s most decorated war veteran’s home for his most recent award?
“I’m hoping to find a space on the wall to hang it up,” said Maxwell. “It’s a great honor.”
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=114184
Posted by Veterans Today on Jun 14 2011, With 0 Reads, Filed under Editors Picks, Heroes, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Article => He was awarded the medal of honor after he threw himself on a live grenade in France, saving the rest of his platoon from certain death.
T.V.=> Thank you Bob Maxwell. YOU are a shining example of what the America military segment of humanity is all about.
Congratulations to Bob Maxwell, and thanks for this story to start the day. What an honor it would be to meet him. If America slips into another depression, we can look forward with hope for a another generation like Bob’s to arise, forged in the furnaces of duty and hardship into real men of integrity and courage to replace the spineless jellyfish who pass for leaders today.
I totally agree with you, Dan. Maxwell is amazing.
How tremendously inspiring,why is this story not peddled on the news? the media,including the alternative media are so “doom&gloom” obsessed.Bob Maxwell’s amazing accomplishments would cut through all of that,like a sword through paper.