Navy Lt. Richard McCool received the Medal of Honor from President Truman in December 1945, six months after leading a crew in fighting a fire on his ship off Okinawa that was damaged by a downed Japanese plane. McCool helped rescue several trapped men in a blazing compartment, according to his medal citation, and carried a badly wounded sailor to safety, despite his own serious burns and shrapnel wounds.

He went on to spend 30 years in the Navy, retiring as a captain in 1974. Most folks in the Bainbridge Island, Wash., area never knew it, though.

In 1943, Marine pilot John Lucian Smith became the first Oklahoman to receive the Medal of Honor after shooting down 19 Japanese planes in 54 days.

A portrait of the Lexington native made the Dec. 7, 1942, cover of Life magazine, and he came home to a big welcome. A few people still remember that festive day in Lexington in the 1940s and the person the town gathered to honor.

Smith’s rank rose to colonel by 1945 and he continued to serve and command in the Marine Corps well after World War II, earning numerous honors along the way.

He died in 1972 in Encino, Calif., at age 57.

Lt. Col Leon Robert Vance of Enid is the only Oklahoman to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously. Vance Air Force Base in Enid was renamed after him in 1949, five years after his death. According to Air Force narrative and his Medal citation, Vance participated in the bombing of German positions in France in preparation for the DDay Allied invasion.

On June 5, 1944 — the day before D-Day — his B-24 was repeatedly hit by gunfire, which killed the pilot and knocked out all but one engine. Although gunfire nearly severed his right foot, Vance steadied the failing bomber long enough to approach land and have the crew bail out safely. Vance stayed behind because he believed one man was too injured to jump.

Vance survived the crash landing off the British coast — a freak explosion severed his foot but freed him from the plane — and was rescued. President Truman congratulates Navy Lt. Richard McCool. McCool was honored for heroic actions on his burning ship off Okinawa in 1945.

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