George O'Brien, Medal of Honor......
There are now only three living MOH awardees in Texas.
As described in The Midland Reporter-Telegram by another friend, Frank Cahoon, George was an extremely humble guy. The type of person who lives up to the honor. In his office were mementoes from the Marine Corps and pictures from the oil business. Nothing about the Medal of Honor. He considered the award one for his entire unit not just himself.
I met George through his wife Sandy who is a member of an organization abbreviated by two letters that I belong to. I used to see them together and walk with them occasionally and it was some time before I knew that George was in fact a MOH awardee. I would stop in and see George in his office downtown from time to time to talk mainly about the oil business and the military in general. The only time he ever spoke of his MOH experience to me was several years ago when he finally returned to Korea for the first time since the war. He had been apprehensive about going, but after the fact was so glad he went with several other men from his unit.
George will be missed greatly, as a role model, but more importantly as a friend and great guy. In his honor the Commemorative Air Force is building a Texas Medal of Honor Hall at our headquarters.
Take a moment to read the citation awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to George O'Brien.
 | I knew that George O'Brien had recently had some health problems, but frankly I was rather floored when I learned that he had passed away on Friday. George was a friend, a longtime neighbor of my folks and a Korean War Medal of Honor winner. Oops sorry George, I mean awardee. George never liked to be called a MOH winner. In fact he didn't really like to talk about "the award" all that much to begin with. He usually had to be persuaded to talk about "the award" in public as he did on Memorial Day 2002 in the picture I took of him at left. |
As described in The Midland Reporter-Telegram by another friend, Frank Cahoon, George was an extremely humble guy. The type of person who lives up to the honor. In his office were mementoes from the Marine Corps and pictures from the oil business. Nothing about the Medal of Honor. He considered the award one for his entire unit not just himself.
I met George through his wife Sandy who is a member of an organization abbreviated by two letters that I belong to. I used to see them together and walk with them occasionally and it was some time before I knew that George was in fact a MOH awardee. I would stop in and see George in his office downtown from time to time to talk mainly about the oil business and the military in general. The only time he ever spoke of his MOH experience to me was several years ago when he finally returned to Korea for the first time since the war. He had been apprehensive about going, but after the fact was so glad he went with several other men from his unit.
George will be missed greatly, as a role model, but more importantly as a friend and great guy. In his honor the Commemorative Air Force is building a Texas Medal of Honor Hall at our headquarters.
Take a moment to read the citation awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to George O'Brien.
