The recently unveiled final design of the Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center should remind Chattanoogans why the city is the perfect home for such a shrine.
Although the center, which is expected to open off the Tennessee Aquarium Plaza in February 2020, will honor the memory of 32 Tennesseans associated with the Medal of Honor, the city and a number of recipients are inexorably linked with the medal.
* Six members of Andrews’ Raiders, a band of Union soldiers who attempted to cut Confederate supply lines between Atlanta and Chattanooga during the Civil War in 1862 (an effort that eventually failed around Ringgold, Georgia), were the first individuals in the nation to receive the Medal of Honor. Eight of the raiders are buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
* Mary Walker, the only woman honored with a Medal of Honor, worked as an unpaid field surgeon near Union front lines, including in Chattanooga in 1863 after the Battle of Chickamauga.
* William Zion, who received a Medal of Honor for his conduct as a Marine during the China Relief Expedition in 1900, was in charge of a German prisoner of war barracks in Fort Oglethorpe during World War I and is buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
* Charles H. Coolidge, a native of Signal Mountain who still lives there today, was presented the Medal of Honor for his actions as an Army technical sergeant in France in 1944 and was honored by Chattanooga after the war by having a North Chattanooga park named for him.
* Desmond Doss, s Virginia native who was honored for his exploits during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, lived for many years after the war near Chattanooga, is buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery and is the subject of the 2016 film “Hacksaw Ridge.”
* Ray Duke, a Whitwell native, was posthumously honored for his actions during the Korean War and is one of few U.S. soldiers ever to be honored with the U.S. and Korean Medals of Honor. He also is buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Many of the above will be featured in exhibits in the 19,000-square-foot heritage center space, which retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Noah Long, who will oversee the design and construction process, described as “not a military museum” but “about the people.”
“It’s about experiencing, educating and being inspired,” he said.
The center, Long said, will be both chronological by U.S. engagement for which the medals were presented (Civil War through the war on terror) and thematic in presenting the six character traits on which the medals are based.
“It was a difficult design challenge,” he said.
By combining the chronological and thematic methods, Long said, heritage center officials want visitors to have the “understanding that these [recipients] were ordinary people. But they took actions because they had these characteristics.”
The characteristics – courage, sacrifice, patriotism, citizenship, integrity and commitment – will be displayed in kiosks throughout the chronological path. In the center of the heritage center will be the Heart of Valor exhibit, honoring Arthur MacArthur Jr., the 18-year-old Union first lieutenant who was presented the Medal of Honor by inspiring his regiment when he shouted “On Wisconsin” before seizing and planting the regimental flag on the crest of Missionary Ridge during the Civil War battle there on Nov. 25, 1863. He also is the father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who was a U.S. Army leader and Medal of Honor recipient during World War II.
The design, said retired Maj. Gen. Bill Raines, chairman of the center, is “immersive” and “inspiring” in encouraging visitors “to demonstrate those traits.”
It will encourage the “spectator to participate,” center Executive Director Keith Hardison said. It will allow them to see that “America has superheros, but they don’t always wear capes and tights.”
Indeed, said Long, visitors will be able to “hear, feel and sense” the experiences in which the Medal of Honor recipients found themselves.
Chattanoogans should feel gratified this center, tucked away for years in a corridor at Northgate Mall, will finally have a permanent home. It nearly landed appropriately in Coolidge Park several years ago, but the placement of the center in the park proved to be controversial, and the site on the much traveled Aquarium Plaza became available around the same time.
Heritage center officials wisely said they would not move forward until financial targets were met, but each one has been achieved. As contracts were signed this week, officials had raised $4.3 million of a $6 million goal.
Now the center is only 13 months away from opening and displaying the stories of individuals whose character traits allowed them to take inspiring actions and whose traits in turn might inspire visitors to reach beyond themselves in their own lives and inspire others.