Lindbergh Receives Congressional Medal of Honor

President Coolidge and Col. Charles Lindbergh

In my dad's Grand Concourse Medical Office in the Bronx hung a framed front page from the New York times dated May 22, 1927 . Dad was very proud of this image. Although, he himself was not a pilot, he could easily relate to people who pushed the envelope to achieve greatness.

After all, dad himself, was an outstanding athlete who excelled in three sports in college, managed to graduate from City College in three years and graduated at the top of his class at New York Flower Medical School. Not too shabby.

Dad was a special man who inhabited his own rare atmosphere.

On this day in 1928, President Calvin Cooledge bestowed upon Charles Lindbergh the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award that can be given to an American citizen.

The citation reads:

For displaying heroic courage and skill as a navigator, at the risk of his life, by his nonstop flight in his airplane , the "Spirit of St. Louis," from New York City to Paris, France, 20-21 May 1927. by which Capt. Lindbergh not only achieved the greatest individual triumph of any American citizen but demonstrated that travel across the ocean by aircraft was possible.

Lindy's feat just may have inspired me to earn my wings about 50 years later!

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