“By presenting these remarkable stories in this fresh way, we hope to capture the imagination anew and inspire the public.”

MORE THAN 3,500 American military personnel have been awarded the Medal of Honor since its establishment in 1863. Now a new interactive online map lets internet users see where those individual acts of heroism took place.

The Medal of Honor Valor Trail is a joint initiative of the American Battlefield Trust and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The site allows visitors to click on any one of thousands of locations on a scalable world map to see where an American serviceman performed a feat that resulted in the famous citation being awarded. Entries include a short biography of the recipient and a description of their heroism. The project spans the full lineage of the Medal of Honor, from its Civil War origins into the 21st century.

“Medal of Honor recipients’ stories are among the most inspiring in all American history,” said David Duncan, president of the American Battlefield Trust. “From Normandy’s Omaha Beach to the mountains of Afghanistan to Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, more than 3,500 men and one woman have earned the Medal of Honor. But their stories have rarely been told from the places where their heroics unfolded.” 

“By presenting these remarkable stories in this fresh way, we hope to capture the imagination anew and inspire the public to live up to our highest promise and purpose,” said Laura Jowdy, the society’s director of archives, collections and museum.

Although the map is currently up and running, work on the project continues, with more locations and stories being added all the time.

To check it out for yourself, visit https://www.valortrail.org/places-of-valor.