Medal of Honor recipients- many from troubled families, challenges, and orphans
By Jim Walsh- As Told in Albuquerque Journal 9/1/2008
Update: I found Ken Worley’s Info as appears on Medal of Honor
I found this (Part 1) article about Marine Ken Worley very interesting because it gave a hint there may be something very common among or in the minds of Medal of Honor recipients, and this morning part 2, as published by Jim Walsh confirms that number of them came out of troubled families, several were in foster care. More than one had run away from home. Many had significant challenges to overcome in childhood and they could have gone in many directions, but they chose to become better in spite of the challenges they faced.
I find this to be inspiring story. My thoughts are still developing for later use. But, my challenge to youth workers and those working among, orphans, foster children, and the discarded, you may very well be training someone who will later live-or-die for a cause greater than self and be just one more of our worlds unsung hero’s. Daniel Arellano
Terence Barrett, a former Marine and now a North Dakota State University professor, has been conducting an 8-year research study on the nature of bravery based on 292 Marines who received the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration.
Ken Worley had become of special interest to him. For years, he scoured public records and could find nothing on the young Worley. He could find no grade school records of him in Farmington. He could find no high school records for him in Truth or Consequences.
Save for a few years as a foster child in California and his death in Vietnam, Ken Worley had become a compelling enigma that wouldn’t let Barrett rest until he solved it.
On Aug. 12, 1968, Marines took refuge in a hamlet. Discovered by the Viet Cong, grenades rolled into their midst. Ken Worley threw himself on one, losing his life, saving others, and eventually becoming a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Sharon (Worleys cousin) said she knew nothing about the award. But she did recall a small boy who lived a troubled childhood, one in which a young Kenny was subjected to what she called “psychological abuse” by adults in his life.
“I’ll tell you one thing I remember clearly,” she said. “I was a couple of years older than Kenny, and when we were kids and we played with one another out in the fields, he was just like any other kids you’d ever meet. He was just like all of us except even as kids we knew some of the adults in the family just didn’t like him and we’d say they were being mean to him.”
He ran away to California at 16 and was living in an abandoned trailer when a family took him. He joined the Marines a few years later.“One of the things I found in common with all the (Medal of Honor recipients) I’ve studied is that a number of them came out of troubled families,” he said. “Several were in foster care. More than one had run away from home. Many had significant challenges to overcome in childhood and they could have gone in many directions, but they chose to become better in spite of the challenges they faced. I find those to be inspiring stories.”
Barrett’s study, which begins in the Civil War and follows every Marine who received the Medal of Honor, has identified 34 who have slipped into obscurity, not recognized by either the Marine Corps or their hometowns. It is Barrett’s hope that his research will encourage the hometowns of the Medal of Honor winners to find some way to recognize their sacrifice publicly.
Im still trying to locate the article online
On Aug. 12, 1968, Marines took refuge in a hamlet. Discovered by the Viet Cong, grenades rolled into their midst. Ken Worley threw himself on one, losing his life, saving others, and eventually becoming a recipient of the Medal of Honor.












