A little-known fact of Colorado history, dug up by a former Republican Congressman, is that Pueblo is the only city to be hometown to four living Medal of Honor recipients.  This is a remarkable statistic for any time, considering the fact that today there are just 79 living medal of honor recipients out of 3,465 medals that have been awarded since the decoration was established in the Civil War.  Since WWII, a vast majority of these medals have been awarded posthumously.

When President Eisenhower (who happened to marry his future First Lady in Denver), presented the award to Pueblo’s Raymond Murphy, he remarked “What is it…something in the water out there in Pueblo? All you guys turn out to be heroes!”

Today, we Americans stop to remember those who have laid down their lives in what Lincoln called at Gettysburg the “last full measure of devotion.”  In 1985 another great president, Ronald Reagan, reminded us that our honored dead “gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.”

And for their sacrifice, we do remember.