My Time with Hiroshi Miyamura at the White House

My Time with Hiroshi My Time with Hiroshi Miyamura at the White House Miyamura at the White House

By Kenneth Riege

II have had the extreme honor of getting to spend time with Gallup’s Favorite Son and one of our nation’s greatest heroes - Mr. Hiroshi “Hershey”

Miyamura. Earlier this year

Hershey invited me to go with him to the Medal of Honor

Convention in Annapolis,

MD. The dates of the convention were September 12th through the 16th. While visiting with

Hershey, he asked me if I had ever been to the White House, which of course I replied,

“No,” and he then asked if I had ever met a U.S. president, which again, I replied, “No.”

Hershey stated, for the MOH

Convention trip, we would leave on September 11th. Part of the trip involved each of the MOH recipients and one guest going to the White House to meet the president. Hershey has of course done this quite often, and I was honored to have this experience at least once. That’s just how

Hershey is, always thinking and doing for others. We flew from

Albuquerque to Dallas-Ft. Worth

Airport and then changed planes to proceed to Baltimore. On that flight there were five Medal of Honor recipients. It was so cool to be surrounded by such greatness. The pilot came out to greet the MOH recipients and informed us that he was a fighter pilot with the U.S. Air Force, and he was so honored to be flying with five MOH recipients on 9/11.

We arrived in Baltimore, and Hershey got to visit with his fellow MOH recipients as they shared stories of their lives and families. That was quite a “pinch yourself” moment to realize I was sitting with our nation’s finest.

Wednesday came, and everyone was very excited to visit the White House. Many of the MOH recipients had already met President Trump. Hearing their stories and being at the White House was a tremendous honor.

After clearing through security, we loaded onto several buses with a heavy police escort to the White House. I will admit I was a bit nervous. We arrived to a great fan fair of many different high-ranking military and civilian officials and proceeded to the East Wing. While waiting to meet with the president, we were greeted with music and White House officials welcoming us. Again, another one of those “pinch me” moments when you realize you are standing in the White House with 34 of our nation’s Medal of Honor recipients waiting to meet the president of the United States. WOW! After about an hour, we were taken to a room to meet the president. There were Medal of Honor recipients from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. Hershey and I were second in line behind WWII MOH Recipient Mr. Hershel “Woody” Williams. Woody’s grandson asked me if I had been there before. I told him I hadn’t, and he asked me if I was nervous, which strangely enough, I wasn’t at that moment. I had it in my mind to thank the president for an action he had done several months earlier. It was back in June, when the president of France was visiting, and he and President Trump planted a tree from Belleau Wood. This means so much to me as my grandfather Pvt. Paul Emerson Riege fought at the Battle of Belleau Wood during WWI with the USMC.

Our time came to meet the President, and I kept playing through my mind what I was going to say. That worked until I saw him, and the only thing that went through my mind at that time was, “Oh! That’s the president of the United States.” At that point the only thing I could say was, “It’s a great honor to meet you, sir,” and he said, “Oh no, the honor is all mine. Thank you for coming and welcome to the White

In the group picture, the only non-MOH recipient is in the third row, far right. His name is Mr. Robert J. Monahan, Jr. He is the main person who was in charge of putting on the MOH Convention at Annapolis.

House.” We posed for our picture, and again he shook our hands and thanked us for coming. Hershey presented President Trump with one of his Challenge Coins, and I presented him with a Gallup Most Patriotic Small Town in America Coin, along with a Gallup Rotary Club Coin and invited him to come to Gallup anytime. He smiled and said, “I may take you up on that offer.” We then proceeded to the East Room where we waited until all the other MOH recipients had their pictures taken. Then the president joined us for a nice briefing and talk. It was so amazing that I was so close to the president of the United States. I sat there thinking how blessed I was to be able to attend this event and to be sitting with all these great military men and veterans. It made me so proud to receive the honor of wearing the uniform of our country. After the president finished and departed for another event, all the MOH recipients gathered for a photo, then, we all went into a different room where we experienced some of the most amazing food and desserts. I caught myself again thinking how blessed I was as I peered up and looked at a beautiful painting of the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.

It is truly an honor to have the photos from that day, as well as the photo of Hershey and I, the group photo, and two letters that I received from our president. I have these on display in my office and welcome anyone to come by to view them, as well as all our other amazing display items at the Gallup Comfort Suites.