On March 25, construction will begin on the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas. A ceremony commemorating National Medal of Honor Day will be held to coincide with the groundbreaking.
The museum will be the first of its kind and will house stories of over 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients. After a nationwide search, Arlington was selected as the home for the museum in 2019. It has since picked up a large number of donations, including a $20 million sum from Jerry Jones.
An education center will be included in the museum, with the goal of helping young people build character. The museum will be located in the city’s entertainment district, which is already home to many tourist attractions, including the Dallas Cowboys, the Texas Rangers, Texas Live!, and Six Flags Over Texas.
The museum will complement the National Medal of Honor Monument planned for Washington, D.C., which will serve as a place of reflection to highlight the service and sacrifice of its growing list of recipients.
Construction on the museum is expected to be completed in 2024. According to the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, no federal funds will be used to construct the museum or the monument.
The museum will also be launching a contest for sixth through twelfth-grade students to write an essay about what honor means to them and why society needs honorable people. The winning writer will be flown to Arlington to read the essay at the groundbreaking ceremony.
On December 27, 2021, President Biden signed the bill into law that authorized the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to build the museum in Arlington and the monument in Washington, D.C. Representative Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and Texas Senator John Cornyn introduced the bill into Congress with Representative Blake Moore of Utah and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.
The Medal of Honor is the highest decoration that a service member can receive for courage and valor in combat.
