Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/heroes-hall-veterans-museum/)
Voice of OC has published a series in our opinion section of some of Orange County’s most notable veterans who received the highest honors the U.S. military bestows on soldiers for their heroic actions in combat. Plaques honoring these individuals are showcased at Heroes Hall at the Orange County Fairgrounds.
This Veterans Day Voice of OC is publishing the most recent plaques on display at Heroes Hall honoring some of Orange County’s most decorated veterans. The most recent plaque was erected to honor the 84 men who were killed when the plane transporting them to Viet Nam crashed into Loma Ridge after take off from El Toro Marine Air Station on June 25, 1965.
The President of the United States of America presented the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Lance Corporal Donald J. Hogan, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism in action during Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan.
Kazuo Masuda was an Orange County resident who received posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945. Masuda was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and died while defending his men during an escape while fighting the enemy alone. His family was taken from Orange County and placed in a Japanese Interment Camp during the war. But this horrible injustice did not deter him from fighting for his country so heroically.
The inaugural exhibit at Heroes Hall, the new veterans’ museum at the Orange County Fairgrounds, features items soldiers carried with them in combat.
This week, the county’s first veterans’ museum – Heroes Hall – formally opens the doors on its first exhibit, The Things They Carried, on Wednesday. Voice of OC produced a series of video tributes for nearly a dozen Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, whose memorial plaques were recently moved from the county civic center, where they were in disrepair, to Heroes Hall. Thanks to Jonathan Morgan Jenkins from Performance Production Services who kindly donated the veteran videos for Heroes Hall. Look below the video for links to profiles of these extraordinary veterans. Also, read this article for the back-story of Heroes Hall, and this note from our publisher on the monument.
After decades of rebuffs by political leaders, Orange County’s military veterans will celebrate the opening of their own museum at the county fairgrounds on Veterans Day.
The first museum honoring veterans in Orange County finds a home at the former Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) this Veterans Day Friday at the OC Fairgrounds with a public dedication at 1 p.m. during the annual Veterans & Labor, Partners in Service event.
Without any hesitation and sacrificing his own life, Monsoor threw himself onto the grenade, smothering it to protect his teammates who were all lying together on a nearby rooftop.
William Barber’s military career spanned four decades and three wars in Asia including Chosin Reservoir campaign of the Korean War.