Jim Wade is the executive director for the board that oversees the Medal of Honor Museum and archives located inside Northgate Mall and on Chamberlain Street downtown, respectively. The museum provides to the community education about, and honors the sacrifices military members have made from, the Revolutionary War all the way to the current conflict in Afghanistan.- Erica Tuggle
At the National Medal of Honor Museum inside Northgate Mall, there are two main missions: to preserve the memory and honor of those men who have received the highest honor this nation can award, and to educate both current and future generations on our militarily history and those who have given the ultimate for their country, says
Jim Wade, the executive director of the museum.
In 1863, President Lincoln initiated the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, and the first recipients were six of Andrew’s Raiders from Tennessee.
Beginning with this rich tie to our area, the museum works to portray the history of the medal since Chattanooga’s part in the Great Locomotive Race, which resulted in the medals being awarded, and the military history of the United States from the Revolutionary War through the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.
Wade says, “A lot of men have sacrificed their life for this country, and we want to honor them and preserve their memory and educate current and future generations on what has taken place.”
Wades comes from an army background as an officer, and most of those who volunteer in the museum and the archives are veterans or families of veterans. The museum is a non-profit organization and exists only on the charity of others with donations and volunteer assistance.
In the late ’80s, the museum was established by a businessman out of Cleveland, Tenn., and then presented to the leadership of 82nd airborne division, Leo Smith, who served 32 years in active military
The museum began in the Memorial Auditorium, and then resided in a building on the corner of Georgia Avenue and 4th Street for 10 years. Afterwards the museum was stored in less than appealing conditions in what is now the Alstom building on Riverfront Parkway. In 2003, the small museum opened at the Northgate Mall and 3, 500 square feet of archives were established on Chamberlain Avenue.
Currently, the museum is working to upgrade and change the mall museum with new carpets and additional exhibits. The long-term goal is to move the museum to a downtown location, to connect with the tourism and history of the Chattanooga area, and to expand and bring more items from the archives to public view.
Currently within the museum, the history of the 3,400 plus medals that have been awarded in the nation’s history is visible in examples from around the country, including the most recent recipient of the medal, Salvatore Giunta, who was awarded the medal in December for action in Afghanistan and is the only living recipient since Vietnam.
There are only 86 current living recipients of this prestigious medal that is awarded for service above and beyond the call of duty.
Included in the Revolutionary War section of the museum is an example of the patch that would become the basis of the Purple Heart combat wound badge.
In the Civil War section, examples of Chattanooga’s contributions at the Battle of Chickamauga and the Battle of Chattanooga are given as well as the medal earners from those conflicts.
A replica of the uniform and medal of the only woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor, Mary Walker, is also on display at the museum. Walker was a surgeon for the Union army and did a little spying for them on occasion as well, Wade says. The replica of her uniform includes the pants she wore under her dress that were frowned upon, and that she was asked to remove. She declined.
Continuing through the museum, each war and its recipients are featured. There is also a replica of the Missing in Action table that is set up at banquets and in mess halls to remember those who did not come home. Each item on the table stands for something, such as the slice of lemon to remind us of the soldiers’ bitter fate.
There is also a section of the museum for the current engagement that has been going on for 10 years now, making this the longest war in military history. There have been eight recipients of the medal during this current war, and seven of these eight are posthumous.
“It’s the highest award we can give for actions above and beyond the call of duty, and our objective here is to honor these men and tell their history and then educate our people about the history of the U.S. military and what it’s taken to get us to where we are so that we have the choices and freedom we have now,” Wade says.
Part of remembering these men and women is the March 25 Medal of Honor Day. The museum hosts a banquet on March 26 at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo in honor of this day, and anyone can sign up to attend the program and dinner, and listen to the featured speaker. This is the major fundraiser for the museum, which exists only on contributions and donations.
Stopping by this free museum will also give visitors a glimpse into the service given by locals such as Charles Coolidge, for whom Coolidge Park is named. In 1944, Coolidge received the Medal of Honor for service while in France, and he is still alive today, living on Signal Mountain.
If you are lucky, you may be able to hear him share his experiences in one of his occasional visits to the museum and the annual banquet, when he is physically able to attend, Wade says.
Desmond Doss is another local who was the only conscientious objector in World War II to receive the Medal of Honor, for saving over 70 lives as a medic. For contributions, the museum offers a video of his story from the History Channel. There is also Sergeant Major Paul Huff’s medal story and artifacts as well as the stories of many others who have given their all for the sake of freedom.
For more information on the Medal of Honor Museum and the upcoming banquet, visit
www.mohm.org.
