TR'S MEDAL OF HONOR GIVEN TO WHITE HOUSE
Tweed Roosevelt Presents TR's Medal to President Bush in Roosevelt
on September 16, 2002
See Photos
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The last chapter in the long story of Theodore Roosevelt's Medal of Honor was concluded on Monday, September 16, 2002, when Tweed Roosevelt, great grandson of TR, presented the Rough's Rider's medal to President George W. Bush for the permanent collection of the White House. The ceremony, attended by many members of the Roosevelt family and Trustees and officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, took place in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing.
The Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously to Theodore Roosevelt by President William J. Clinton in the Roosevelt Room on January 16, 2001, after a long quest that began in 1898. After January 2001 TR's Medal of Honor went on tour and was on public display at Sagamore Hill, TR Birthplace, TR Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, the D-Day Museum in New Orleans, and in North Dakota, Tampa, Boston, and Portland, Oregon. The award of the Medal of Honor was authorized by Congress in 1998, the centennial of the Spanish-American War, for TR's bravery in the battle for San Juan Heights in Cuba on July 1, 1898. In his remarks on September 16, 2002, Tweed Roosevelt, who directed efforts by the TRA and others to secure the medal for TR,
called attention to TR's Nobel Peace Prize Medal, which has sat in a special glass case on the mantel in the Roosevelt Room since 1982, when it was donated to the White House by the TRA. Tweed Roosevelt said that TR's Nobel Peace Prize Medal and TR's Medal of Honor complement one another-- "peace with honor; two medals; two sides of the same concept."
Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize (that was in 1906), and he is the only President of the United States ever awarded the Medal of Honor.
In his remarks on September 16, President Bush thanked Tweed Roosevelt, the Theodore Roosevelt Association, and TRA Executive Director John Gable for their efforts to preserve Theodore Roosevelt's memory and heritage.
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The Officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association have been invited to ceremonies and functions in the White House by Presidents Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, which is a remarkable and striking tribute to the important work done by the TRA.