takes on an even more special meaning. >> we come together, again, with gratitude. >> and we invite you to witness history along with us in "the cycle." today's ceremony will take place in about 40 minutes at the white house. we will bring it to you live in its entirety as soon as it begins. but we start with breaking news concerning the missing flight out of malaysia. flight 370. now the longest search for a missing airliner in history. 11 days in counting. the search zone enormous. stretching from kazakhstan to australia. search teams from 26 countries looking over more than 3,200 miles from the last contact point. three americans were onboard. u.s. homeland security says no information on what led to the disappearance. china had 154 passengers onboard. it says it has cleared all of them of links to terrorism. family members of the missing are threatening a hunger strike,

hoping to force malaysian officials into sharing more information and clearing up some of the confusion. thai military radar now collaborates malaysian reports indicating the plane veered off course toward the malacca straits after the transponders were shut off. we now know that turn wasn't that sharp. wasn't a hairpin sudden turn as first reported. investigators say it was a smooth programmed turn. about 20 degrees. which passengers wouldn't have even felt. nbc's kerry sanders has the latest. kerry, let's start with this turn and the new information about that. how does that change things? >> it really takes you back into the cockpit as an investigator. because to have the knowledge to use the equipment, to use a computer-assisted turn means you're either a pilot, co-pilot, or you are intricately involved in avionics and understand it. let me take you into the cockpit of a 777. we have a picture here of it.

first off, we're going to show you right here, this is called the flight management system area right there. so if you are sitting in the left seat or the right seat, you can reach down and you would type in some information to the flight management system. you would actually have to know what numbers and letters you're using to input that turn. you and i could not sit down there and guess it and fig wrurt out. it's not going to happen. that suggests if the flight management system were used, somebody really knew what they were doing. the other option to turn the plane is actually up here. it's much more rudimentary. in fact, you'll find it even in a cessna 152. it's a little dial that almost looks like it's just the compass and you pull out a little pin and you twist and turn it. and then you let it back in. and then the plane follows that turn. so even if you've been in a plane with a friend who took you up, finding that and using it

inside what you can clearly see is a very complicated aircraft here, would be a challenge. so, again, it takes you back to the expectation and investigators believe that somebody here had advanced knowledge about aviation, probably a pilot or a co-pilot, or somebody who got in there who had that sort of information. and the way that they've been able to conclude this was a computer-assisted turn is even the best pilot, if they grab it by their hands and they begin to do that and they've got their feet down on the pedals, there is a slight rise or a slight dip in the altitude. could be 100, 200 feet. but in this particular case, the computer does it very gradually without a rise or a lowering in the altitude. that's why they believe this was a computer-assisted turn. >> all right. kerry sanders. thank you for that tutorial. let's bring geographer. and former ntsb investigator and friend of the show, greg fife.

greg, starting with you, interesting theory. of course, at this point, all theories still on the table. chris goodfellow writing, what he thinks is happening, perhaps there was an electrical fire, something extraordinary happening onboard. instead of it being a malfeasance for the turn, the pilot said let's get to the nearest airport so that's why they turned that way. that's how pilots are train to think. where is the nearest airport we can land at in then they're perhaps overcome by smoke and run out of time and the plane keeps going on auto pilot. and so, perhaps, nothing bad -- everybody trying to do the best they could and it just not working out. what do you think about that idea? >> the fact that this theory about electrical fire, electrical fires do not burn fast. they actually burn very slow. with the certification requirements for the insulation on those wires, they are supposed to be self-extinguishing. so you're not going to have the conventional fire where this plastic material catches fire and turns into a big fireball.

there was wiring years ago that had a problem and had toxic smoke. that's not supposed to happen in a modern day airplane. the wires are very slow burning. they will not burn so the pilots wouldn't have been able to get some kind of radio call up. >> some reason they turned for the best of reasons and unable to complete what they tried to do? >> you would have expected if they were turning, they'd just taken out of kuala lumpur. this was the best airport to handle the airplane. they would have gone gback to where they came from. they wouldn't have been diverted to some other airport, 10, 15, 100 miles away. >> in the goodfellow piece, he's saying even if it was slow burning, to your point, there would have been so much smoke it would have been nearly incapacitatin incapacitating. >> you'd have to know exactly where that fire was. if there was a fire in the ca n cabin, you have the barrier store with the cockpit door. the crew have a quick mask, they seal to your face, they have

smoke goggles and also in some airplanes basically a plastic tube the pilots can put up against their eyes and look at the instruments. so there's a number of safeguards there. plus, again, you'd have to take out all the electrical system to disable all the different methods of communication. there would be at least somebody making a radio call. >> every fear we could imagine is easily discountable. >> yeah. >> well, i want to ask andrew a question, just shifting gears quickly to the satellite images, andrew, and want to know what types of images can be seen from the various satellites? and why is it not surprising that we haven't found anything yet from these images? >> yeah, sometimes people think about the fact we have dozens of these satellites in earth orbit right now returning all kinds of images. they wonder, why isn't this an easy thing to find, an aircraft that might be somewhere? it depends what kind of satellite imagery we're actually

talking about. the images you're used to seeing on your nighttime news, weather satellite image, things need to be the size of several city blocks before you an see anything. those satellites are thousands of miles in space. other satellites are a few hundred miles above our heads and see things as small as a couple city blocks or maybe down to a size of about a football field. there is an international agreement for sharing images at this scale that can see things at that size. and the u.s. government agencies are actually sharing some f those images now with people in other nations for this particular emergency. but there's another kind of imagery that could be particularly useful. what we call high-resolution satellites. and they actually return images that allow you to see things like cars or the shape of houses, even smaller objects. that's the kind of imagery people are used to seeing on internet map servers and so fotfot forth. there's a couple reasons why nothing's turned up searching through those images. one is there's no easy automatic way to identify something as an aircraft or debris from aircraft. the other even bigger problem is

the enormous search area. >> right. >> as long as it's such a long area, it's going to be real hard to find something. >> on that note, andrew, china is moving 21 of its satellites into position to search for the plane. talk to us about how satellite images are shared between their different agencies. would you say the more help the better from different nations? or does this further complicate the search? >> no. in this situation, the more data, the better. it's always more welcome. i told you before, there is actually an international agreement, the u.s. geological survey right now is sharing data from the land satellites. those were designed to actually look at land surface, but they could be used for looking at ocean surface as well. the challenge there is that those images only see things down to about the size of football field or maybe smaller. if you're looking for pieces of debris, something just isn't going to show up there. the high-resolution satellites right now, the public, general public, can even help search through some of these images. the operator of a couple of the most prominent high-resolution satellites, you can go to their

websites and actually help search through the imagery. the problem is the area is so huge, and they don't have imagery covering things like the open ocean back a week ago when you would have maybe wanted to look for things like debris. >> yeah. you know, greg, as we looked into this, one of the things people have said a lot is, well, hey, if this were, big if, if this were a terror attack, why hasn't anyone claimed it? we're here going on almost two weeks out. we looked into this and turns out as you may know and many investigators know, only 14% of all terror attacks are actually credibly claimed. from an investigation perspecti perspective, what do you think should be read into this, if anything, when people talk about the fact that there is nobody saying they did this? >> well, it's hard to read anything in because if you remember back to pan am 103, they didn't take credit for the bombing of pan am 103 for almost 3 years. the fact we don't have this instant gratification that somebody's claimed responsibility, we did it, there it is and we're not going to tell you where the airplane is,

we shouldn't read too much into it. again, this may have been a lone wolf, may have been a rogue pilot, may have been a situation where you have nobody to claim responsibility. you could have had an independent martyr, if you will. so that shouldn't factor into the fact that we've got all of these assets out there trying to find this airplane. unfortunately, you're talking 28 million-plus square miles. especially of ocean. that, i means right now the sea state is very rough. if there was any debris, if the airplane did land in the water, break up, if there was any debris, it could be hundreds, if not thousands of miles dispersed in multiple directions. even if you found a seat cushion, you probably wouldn't be able to track it back to where it originated, really. >> it sounded more and more like this was calculated. hearing everything that you're saying. the new developments. authorities are now searching the pilots' homes trying to figure out anything that might trace it back to the plane missing. how important is it to figure out what the motive might have been behind this?

>> i think the -- it's absolutely imperative because when you look at an accident investigation, as a technician, as an accident investigator, you're looking at the airplane to see if there's any level of flight safety issue that could compromise the fleet. these airplanes are still flying out there, they're still carrying millions of people. you've got to know really if there is any kind of issue that needs to be addressed. if you remember the 787, battery fires. all of a sudden it affected the entire fleet. they had to do something. they had to remedy that situation right now. they put the airplane on the ground for quite a long time. if there was a problem. so we have to find out if, in fact, this is an airplane problem or this is some other problem where it was an intentional act. and right now the preponderance of evidence that the malaysians have put forth says that they believe that there is some sort of intentional act crime associated with this event. >> andrew, greg is talking about the sea state, making reference to that. if this plane happened to crash in the indian ocean, are there conditions particular to the

indian ocean that would complicate the search? >> not necessarily. every ocean that you're going to look at has a combination of rough seas, but more importantly, if you're looking from above, the question is cloud cover. we even saw that in some of the images that officially came out from the chinese source that were potentially were suggested showing debris. it ended up not being the case. you saw a lot of cloud cover in those images. cloud cover is a really huge problem. you not only have to fly the spacecraft in the right orbit and look at the right time, but the conditions need to be right. and in terms of the large surface area, it even gets worse because the graphics that you're showing that show the large arcs, there's a lot of uncertainty in those arcs and the aircraft may have had a lot of flying time left. you have to add a buffer on either side. may be looking at each of the arcs that are several hundred miles wide and several thousand miles long. >> so, andrew, can you just go into some of the details on how

we were able to lose sight of this aircraft, this airspace? can you talk a little about that? >> sure. the aircraft actually went off the radar screens literally, i suppose, as you know, in between the handoff from the malaysian air traffic control and the air traffic control there in vietnam. so it was almost depending how you look at it, the worst place to lose track of an aircraft. whether or not that tells us a whole lot about what was going on in the cockpit, i don't really know. you've already been talking about some of the things, some of the indications we've got about the path of the aircraft and what that means about how it was being controlled. i have to agree that for better or worse, those actions don't really tell us a whole lot about narrowing down the possible search area. it's a very unsatisfying answer and especially for the people that want to know, and that have family members on the flight. i suspect it's going to be a long time before we're able to narrow down that search area and find some physical evidence on the ground. >> i mean, greg, every morning i wake up and say, today we're

going to find something new, something will come of this and we'll have a better understanding of what's going on. seems like it's only widening. i mean, yesterday i was talking about how they experienced extreme, you know, the plane -- >> changes. >> extreme changes. and it turned sharply left. and we're finding out that's not all right. how many days is this going to go on for? how many days are we going to be this confused? >> it's unfortunate because there's a lot of creativity with some of the facts. we don't know what is really fact. the malaysians have put information out. then it seems to change. some information comes out of u.s. investigators and, you know, the vetting process. and unfortunately, when these little factoids come out or at least perceived factoids, people build big stories around them. so the last several days with the altitude excursions, there was everybody on there saying the airplane went up, that was to incapacitate the passengers and do all these things. you don't need to go to 45,000 feet to incapacitate the pa passeng passengers. all you need to do is dump the cabin, get the cabin altitude the same altitude you are. i can get you to pass out at

20,000 feet. i don't have to go to 40,000. >> by doing what? >> what you do is dump the cabin. you open the outflow valves that pressurize the tube. now you bring the ambient air to the cabin level so you're breathing 20,000 foot air, not sea level air, that typically high altitude airplanes are pressurized to. >> who should we be listening to? maybe that's a different question. we're hearing all this different information. so many nations are involved. where are you paying your attention? >> i listen to what the indonesians are saying -- excuse me, the malaysians are saying. that's because they are the official source. but you have to vet the information. and i hate to use the term, but there's always something lost in the translation because the way they present it, necessarily isn't the correct way. and so i try to confirm with my folks that i know saying, is this true or is this what the intent of that statement was? because if you put out this misinformation and build these big story lines that the airplane zoomed up then dove down 20,000 feet.

it hurts not only the industry, but it hurts the families because those families now have a distrust of the malaysians because of the changes in information. so now they've watched tv. they see people like me trying to explain these very complex things. and unfortunately, if the last thing they remember is, oh my gosh, i heard somebody talk about how this airplane went up and dove, then they're going to always wonder how terrifying was it for my loved one. what did they experience. what did they go through. without closure, if we never find anything, and that's the last thing they thought about, that's the most hurtful part of this. as a technician, i want to find the airplane to figure out what happened. but to them, they're hanging on words. >> andrew, to that point, if this thing crashed in the indian ocean, there seems to be a pretty strong likelihood, perhaps, that we may never find it or not for 10 or 20 or 30 years. >> yeah. that's always a possibility. it's really frustrating to make these kinds of statements at this point, but new information

may turn up tomorrow, may turn up next week. but somebody may be diving in a submersible and find something years from now or something may turn up on dry land. we're not really sure. i think -- i agree with the point made earlier that it'd be nice to have a little bit more details about some of the facts that we have coming out. i'd love to know more about some of the data connections. these pings that narrow it down supposedly the last location of the aircraft. what happened in the hours before that? do we have recurring pings that could help us to build a trajectory where the aircraft has gone? as far as, no, we don't have that information now which is why the search area or the potential search area is so truly enormous. >> andrew johnson, excellent questions. great feith. thank you for trying to provide some answers. you guys are now caught up to speed on most of the latest in the missing plane mystery. we know some things. we don't know a lot of things. if there are any new developments, we'll bring it to you right here on "the cycle."

still ahead, a history-making day at the white house starts in about 20 minutes. president obama will award 24 veterans the medal of honor. a moment that is decades in the making for the 24 jewish, hispanic, and black soldiers who were denied one of the nation's highest honors years ago. it's promised to be a very special ceremony. we will bring it to you right here, as "the cycle" rolls on.

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the votes have barely been counted, but this morning russian and crimean leaders signed a treaty annexing crimea and putting it on the fast track

to become part of russia. a defiant russian president vladimir putin signed the treaty within minutes of delivering a fiery speech where he declared crimea had always been a part of russia and liken theed reunification to that of east germany. president obama called for an emergency meeting with seven members of the g-8 next week on the sidelines of the nuclear conference in the netherlands. now, to be clear, russia is not invited. and vice president biden is in eastern europe today reassuring america's nato allies that the u.s. has their back and threatening future sanctions against russia. >> it's a simple fact that russia's political and economic isolation will only increase if it continues down its current path. and it is -- and it will, in fact, see additional, additional sanctions by the united states and the eu.

>> not to be outdone, russia has threatened its own sanctions against u.s. senators and officials warning they will be banned from visiting russia. howard fineman, friend of the show and editorial director of the "huffington post" media group joins us to break down the major developments today. howard, it's always great to see you. >> i'm sure those u.s. senators are really sad that they won't be able to -- >> i'm sure they're very, very upset. speaking of that, howard, there is a lot of sanctioning going on. the u.s. now imposing the most comprehensive set of sanctions against russia since the cold war including targets seven russian officials and now there's the report russia could retaliate by sanctioning top obama officials and high-profile u.s. senators. so, to me, howard, it sounds like petty international politics. here's a tweet, for example, from russia's deputy prime minister, who says "comrade @barack obama. what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? or you didn't think about it." do you think russia thinks this

is a joke? is this a joke, howard? >> yes, diplomacy descended to twitter talks. this is what's happening all around the world. we had a piece in the "huffington post" with interviews with some of those top people. yeah, they were basically saying you can't touch us, you can't touch us. it's almost like the scene out of the "treasurer of sierra madr madre." we don't need no badges. that kind of thing. >> i love that movie. >> the problem for the russians is if the united states and european union get together on further economic sanctions, that would be trying to put the squeeze on people below the first level of oligarchs and fans around putin and go after the next layer of the business class in russia which may not have repatriated all their ases and forth, which the big shots began doing months ago as a sign

to me in retrospect that putin was about to spring. >> howard, i think in we were -- the show was america, you would be like our great britain. have that special relationship. we'd never have sanctions against you. you'd always be -- >> thank you. >> -- one of ours. >> compliment. >> thank you. >> so far, i think obama's crimea strategy fits into what we've seen from him around foreign policy, not isolationist, but very careful and judicious about intervening, perhaps reflecting a strategy or realization that intervention in the modern world quite often can make things worse. >> well, yeah, but i think the white house was taken by surprise by putin's move in crim crimea, and they shouldn't have been. and they shouldn't be surprised by anything putin does. and they need to realize that at some point down the road, feeding the bear the way they're doing here is probably

destabilizing in the world at some point. for right now, most of the world, frankly, doesn't care that much whether russia gets crimea back into the fold that it existed in before 1954 when the then-soviet premier trans r transferred administration of cry me you to his home region of ukraine. i think putin is not done. he said in his speech today he does not want a partition of ukraine, meaning for now he's not going to try to separate off or slice off the eastern part of ukraine proper, but just because he's saying right now he doesn't want to do it doesn't mean he won't do it. then we'll have to have another calculation about whether western interests or global stability is truly threatened. and then there are other parts of what putin calls the near abroad that he's going to try to go after including, i think, when the ice melts a little more the gas reserves in the arctic

circle, which he has declared entirely to be russian property. >> yeah, howard, you mentioned that history in 1954. of course, that's what putin talked about in his new speech. i want to read from the translation. he says c s "in 19545 a decisios made to transfer the crimean region to the ukraine. made in clear violation of the constitutional norms. in a totalitarian state. back then it was impossible to imagine ukraine and russia may split and become two separate states. the u.s.s.r. did fall apart. ukrainians were told there would be a single currency, joint armed forces. all empty promises. those were empty promises. it's when crimea ended up as part of a different country that russia realized it was plundered." a bit of counterhistory in terms of the tone, howard, and yet as you mentioned, he's not completely wrong on the facts. foreign policy is about priorities and capacity. this is a much bigger priority for russia, and they have more capacity to hold the turf.

>> well, i think the only outstanding question is what does putin really want, how far is he prepared to go geographically and in terms of control of resources? and at what point does that really become a problem for the rest of the world? a serious problem for the rest of the world. and once you figure that out, then the question is when you try to seriously countermand him. i don't think vladimir putin has any regard whatsoever for history or constitutional niceties whatsoever. and, but we have to decide when to draw a line and where to draw a line. that's a difficult thing to do, and the president hasn't done it yet. >> i would say, howard, if you were being sanctioned, that is where "the cycle" would draw a line. we always enjoy you being here. before you go, did you see any cher ry blossoms on the way to the studio? >> i did not. i see nothing but piles of snow.

it's unbelievable. it's the latest winter in washington history, at least in my history here which is pretty long. i can't wait for the spring. >> yeah. howard, thank you so much for being here. no cherry blossoms. only snow. a check on what the weather might finally end, and what it means for a favorite festival in the nation's capital. the medal of honor ceremony at the white house is scheduled to begin at 3:40 eastern. we'll bring it to you live right here on "the cycle." "hidden things." ok, why's that? well uhhh... surprise!!! um... well, it's true. at ally there are no hidden fees. not one. that's nice. no hidden fees, no worries. ally bank. your money needs an ally. but then it goes to the closet...to die. so try glow unstopables.

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we're back in the news cy e cycle. faa and ntsb are headed to the scene of a fiery and deadly news helicopter crash in seattle. happened yards from the space needle as the chopper was leaving its helipad outside the local abc affiliate. it crashed into several cars, one of which exploded from impact. the driver freed himself from the wreckage but hospitalized in critical condition with burns on half of his body. snow is piling up in the

midwest. a winter storm is dropping up to a foot in parts of minnesota. weather channel meteorologist mike seidel reports from out there. >> reporter: hey, guys. if you think you're sick of winter back in the northeast, how about right here in duluth, minnesota? they have put up with unprecedented cold and above average snowfall. and because of all those cold mornings, 72 subzero mornings in duluth, going back to thanksgiving, this is what you end up with. a lake full of ice. the harbor is on the rocks including 95% of lake superior with ice cover this morning. and 22 inches of snow on the ground back inland at the national weather service office. they've had 90 inches of snow so far. their seasonal average is about 86 1/2. and keep in mind, here in duluth, they typically see 7 inches of snow in april, but last april, they had 51 inches of snow. forecast, another 8, 10, maybe 12 inches around the lake tonight and tomorrow morning. we've got winter storm warnings across parts of minnesota. a winter weather advisory for the twin cities where they'll

pick up 2 to 4 more inches of snow. later this week for spring, they'll actually get in the upper 30s, but then it's back to the deep freeze. highs on saturday here in duluth, only 20. count your blessings. guys, back to you. >> all right. thank you for that, mike. we are looking now at the white house where that medal of honor ceremony we've been telling you about is about to get started. the president is there. 24 men who were honored for their service in vietnam are about to get the medal of honor. long overdue for those men. we're here with colonel jack jacobs, our own medal of honor recipient. what does it mean to these men to get a medal of honor? >> well, you know that nobody does anything by himself. if you ask any medal of honor recipient, he'll tell you that he wears it not just for himself, but for all those who can't. it's kind of interesting because the psychology of being in combat together when a bunch of people are ardently trying to kill you really bonds people who

otherwise would have nothing in common. it's amazing what people do for each other in circumstances like that. we fight to defend the country. we fight to accomplish the mission. but most of all, we fight for each other. in difficult circumstances. that's the most important thing. >> all right. the president is beginning the ceremony. let's listen in. >> welcome to the white house. the presentation of our nation's highest military decoration, the medal of honor, is always a special occasion, but today it is truly historic. this is the single largest group of service members to be awarded the medal of honor since the second world war. and with several of these soldiers recognized for their valor during that war, this ceremony is 70 years in the

making. as one family member has said, this is long overdue. many of these families, and i had a chance to meet all of them who are present here today, you know, they've known these stories of heroism for decades. still, they were pretty surprised when we called them to break the news about the medal of honor. some of them thought it was a prank. some of them thought it was a scam. a few of them thought it might be some trick to get their credit card number. when i called melvin morris, who we'll recognize in a moment for his actions in vietnam, his first reaction was, oh my god, what have i done? when i told him it was all good, the medal of honor, i could hear through the phone he almost

passed out. you see, for their gallantry under fire, each of these soldiers was long ago recognized with the army's second highest award. the distinguished service cross. but ask their fellow veterans, ask their families, and they'll tell you that their extraordinary deeds merited the highest recognition. and today we have the chance to set the record straight. this ceremony reminds us of one of the enduring qualities that makes america great. that makes us exceptional. no nation is perfect, but here in america, we confront our imperfections and face a sometimes painful past. including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal.

so with each generation, we keep on striving to live up to our ideals of freedom and equality, and to recognize the dignity and patriotism of every person. no matter who they are, what they look like, or how they pray. that's why more than a decade ago, congress mandated a review to make sure that the heroism of our veterans wasn't overlooked because of prejudice or discrimination. our military reviewed thousands of war records. they teamed up with veterans groups and museums to get this right. it was painstaking work made even harder because sometimes our service members felt as if they needed to change their last names to fit in. that tells a story about our past. but ultimately, after years of review, these two dozen soldiers, among them hispanic, african-american, and jewish veterans, were identified as having earned the medal of honor.

this is the length to which america will go to make sure everyone who serves under our proud flag receives the thanks that they deserve. so this is going to be a long ceremony. we're going to read all 24 citations. every one is a story of bravery that deserves to be told. first i want to take a few minutes to describe the americans behind these actions. the men these families know. the brilliant lives behind the smiling faces in those old photographs and how they reflected all the beauty and diversity of the country they served. they were americans by birth and americans by choice. immigrants. including one who was not even yet a citizen. they grew up in big city neighborhoods like brooklyn, rural communities like hoopford, nebraska, small towns like

puerto rico. they loved to fish and play baseball. they were sons who made their parents proud and brothers who their siblings looked up to. they were so young, many in their early 20s. when their country went to war, they answered the call. they put on the uniform and hugged their families good-bye. some of them hugged the wives and children that they'd never see again. they fought in the rocky hills of italy. the blood-stained beaches of france. and the freezing mountains of korea. the humid jungles of vietnam. their courage almost defies imagination. when you read the records of these individuals, it's unimaginabl unimaginable. s the valor they displayed.

running into bullets, climbing aboard tanks and taking them out. covering their comrades so they could make it to safety. holding back enemies. wave after wave. even when the combat was hand to hand. manning their posts, some to their very last breath, so their comrades might live. of the 24 american soldiers we honor today, 10 never came home. one of them, corporal joe baldonado from the korean war, is still missing. reminding us that as a nation we have a sacred obligation to keep working to give the families of our missing service members from all wars a full accounting of their loved ones. through their grief, the families of our fallen summon the strength to carry on. wives whose hearts ached for their husbands. sons and daughters who grew up without their dad. nieces and nephews and

grandchildren. these families join us here today. and they know more than most that because others laid down their lives for us, we've been able to live our lives in freedom. pursue our dreams. so there's a legacy here of sacrifice that includes a soldi soldier's nephew, a kid from new york who grew up to become one of the great rock stars of all-time and who honors his uncle here today. it includes soldiers who came home and took different paths. some continue to serve in uniform, some beginning new careers. some getting married and raising their kids. serving their communities. taking care of their fellow vets. these veterans lived out their lives in the country that they helped to defend, and doing what they love like william leonard who at age 71 passed away in his

backyard sitting in his chair listening to his beloved yankees play on the radio. and that's where this story might have ended, but mitchell, a friend of one of these soldiers and an army vet, himself, set out on a mission. he and his wife, marilyn, spent years writing letters and working with congress and our military to get this done. so we thank all those who worked so hard for so long to bring us to this moment, especially marilyn and mitchell, now 83 years old, who i'd ask to stand so that we can all say thank you. [ applause ]

finally, of these 24 soldiers, 3 remain with us and have joined us here today. men who remind uses that sometimes the heroes we seek are right in front of us. literally living right next door. most days you can find jose rodela at his san antonio home. 76-year-old retiree who enjoys watching baseball on tv and working on his 1975 chevy pickup. and mowing the grass for his neighbors. joe is such a humble guy -- jose is such a humble guy he did not even mention this ceremony to his neighbors who i think would be pretty shocked to turn on the news tonight and see that the guy who cuts their lawn is getting the medal of honor. today we remember how

32-year-old sergeant first class rodela fought through his wounds in vietnam and rallied his men during 18 hours of constant combat. most days you can find melvin morris at home in port st. john, florida. 72 years old. a retired salesman and a great-grandfather. you'll find him working on his boat, going fishing, reading the bible, spending time with his beautiful wife, mary. married 53 years this month. you're going to have to give me some tips. we're not that far along yet. today, we remember how 27-year-old staff sergeant morris, one of our nation's very first green beret -- one of our very first green berets. think about that. i mean, that's legendary. how staff sergeant morris recovered a fallen comrade in

vietnam, took out several enemy bunkers, and kept going even after he was shot three times. and on most days, you can find santiago erevia at home in san antonio. he's a 68-year-old retired postal worker. he's fixing up his house typically, tending to the garden, going on walks with his wife, or doing some pushups to stay in shape. today, we remember how 23-year-old specialist 4 erevia under a hail of bullets in vietnam gave first aid to his wounded comrades and single handedly destroyed four enemy bunkers. these are extraordinary americans. they are exemplary soldiers. and so i want to begin by

welcoming santiago erevia to stage for the reading of the citation. >> specialist 4 santiago j. erevia. united states army. the president of the united states of america authorized by active congress, march 3, 1863, awarded in the name of congress the medal of honor to specialist 4 santiago j. erevia, united states army. for gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. specialist 4 santiago j. erevia distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a radio telephone operator in

company c first battalion air mobile, 501st infantry, 101st airborne division air mobile during search and clear mission near tam ky, republic of vietnam in 1969. after breaching and insurgent perimeter, specialist 4 erevia was designated by platoon leader to render first casualties and the platoon move forward. he came under fire from four bunkers to his left front. though he could have taken cover with the rest of element, he chose a retaliatory course of action. with heavy enemy fire directed at him, he moved in full view of the hostile gunners as he proceeded to crawl from one wounded man to another gathers ammunition. armed with two m-16 rifles and several hand grenades, he charged toward the enemy positions behind the suppressive power of the two rifles. under very intense fire, he continued to advance on the insurgents until he was near the first bunker. disregarding the enemy fire, he

pulled the pin from a hand grenade and advanced on the bunker, leveling suppressive fire until he could drop the grenade into the bunker, mortally wounding the insurgent and destroying the fortification. without hesitation, he employed identical tactics to eliminate the next two enemy positions. with the destruction of the third bunker, specialist 4 erevia exhausted his supply of hand grenades. still under intense fire from the fourth position, he courageously charged forward behind the fire emitted by his m-16 rifles. arriving at the edge of the bunker, he silenced at point-blank range. through the heroic actions the lives of the wounded were saved and the members of the company command post were relieved. it was an inspiration to his entire company and contributed immeasurably to the sublg scces the mission. specialist 4 erevia's gallantry,

extraordinary heroism at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the united states army. [ applause ]

sergeant first class melvin morr morris. sergeant first class melvin morris distinguished himself by act ever gallantry while serving as commander of a strike force drawn from company d first special forces during combat operations against an armed enemy in the vicinity of che lang in vietnam 1969. on that afternoon, staff sergeant morris affiliated companies encountered and enemy mind file and engaged by a hostile force. he learned by radio that a fellow team commander had been killed by an enemy bunker.

he reorganized his men into a posture before advancing forward and splitting off with two men to recover the team commander's body. observing the maneuver, the hostile force concentrated its fire on staff sergeant morris' three-man element and successfully wounded both men accompanying him. after assisting the two wounded men back into forces lines, staff sergeant morris charged into enemy fire with only his suppressive men's fire. while machine guns against him, staff sergeant morris destroyed the positions with hand grenades and continued his assault ultimately eliminating four bunkers. upon reaching the bunker nearest the fallen team commander, the stast sergeant morris retrieved his comrade and arduous trick back to enemy lines and wounded three times but ultimately succeeded in returning his fallen comrade to a friendly position.

staff sergeant morris' extraordinary heroism is above the call of duty' reflect great credit upon himself and his unit and the united states army. [ applause ] >> master sergeant first class jose rodella.

master sergeant jose rodela above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the company commander detachment b-36 company a 5th special forces group airborne and during combat operations against an armed enemy in republic of vietnam on september 1, 1969. that afternoon, master sergeant rodela became under intense morter and rocket and machine gun fire. ignoring the fire he placed his men into defensive positions to prevent the enemy from overrunning the entire battalion. repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, master sergeant

rodel moved from position-to-position providing suppressive fire and assisting the wounded and himself wounded in the back and head by a b-40 rocket while recovering a wounded comrade. he salted and knocked out the b-40 rocket position before successfully returning to the battalion's perimeter. master sergeant rodela extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty is the military services and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the united states army. [ applause ]

i just want to ask santiago and melvin to return to the stage, please. this is a remarkable moment and as they come up, i'd like to recall -- as they take their positions, i'd like to recall the words of a poet. much is taken, much abides and though, we are not not now that strength which, in old days, moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. when equal templer of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong and will to strive to seek, to find, and not

to yield. santiago erevia, melvin morris, jose rodela, in the thick of the fight, all those years ago for your comrades and your country, you refused to yield and on behalf of a grateful nation, we all want to thank you for inspiring us, then and now, with your strength, your will, and your heroic hearts. please give them a big round of applause.

gentlemen, thank you. please take your seats and we will proceed with the rest of the ceremony. >> lenora al verks, rado

accepting on behalf of her father. specialist leonard l.alferado above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with company d second battalion, first cavalry air mode. against an armed enemy in puck long province republic of vietnam on august 12, 1969. on that day the specialist and small reaction force moved through dense jungle to a beleaguered platoon and he opened fire when he suspected enemy fire. sfit his quick reaction he was soon pinned down by the hostile force that blocked the path to the trapped platoon. the specialist moved forward to engage the enemy troops. suddenly, in enemy grenade

exploded nearby and wounding and stunning him. retaliating immediately he killed the enemy. he crawled forward to pull several comrades back within the hastily performed perimeter and realizing his element need to do break away from the hostile force and he began maneuvering for it alone. though repeatedly thrown to the ground by charges, he continued advancing and firing and silencing several, including one enemy machine gun position from his dangerous forward position, he persistently laid fire on the hostile forces and after the enemy troops had broken contact, his comrades discovered that he had succumbed to his wounds. specialist alvarado areflect great credit upon himself and his unit and the united states army.