The Coast Guard’s most important artifact is moving to Texas — for now. The service has loaned Signalman First Class Douglas Munro’s Medal of Honor to the new National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, to support the new museum and raise awareness of Munro’s heroism and the Coast Guard’s legacy of service.
Coast Guard Museum Curator James Brundage hand-carried the medal from its home at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. He was joined by Master Chief Petty Officer Shawn Burns, command master chief of the Eighth Coast Guard District. “It was important to have an enlisted person be a part of [the transfer to the Medal of Honor Museum],” Brundage told MyCG.
Munro received the medal for his heroic actions at Guadalcanal on Sept. 27, 1942. He was killed while using his Higgins boat to shield nearly 500 withdrawing Marines from enemy fire. His full Medal of Honor citation can be read here. Munro, the Coast Guard’s sole Medal of Honor recipient, has inspired generations of servicemembers. Two major cutters and a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort have been named in his honor, as well as Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Munro Hall at the Coast Guard Academy, and Munro Hall at Training Center (TRACEN) Cape May.
The Munro family has since become an inextricable part of the Coast Guard’s rich history. Munro’s mother, Edith, joined the service soon after his death. She took her oath to join the SPARs just two hours after accepting her son’s Medal of Honor and retired at the rank of Lieutenant. Her grandson, and Douglas Munro’s nephew, Cmdr. Douglas Sheehan, carried on his family’s legacy of service in the Coast Guard Reserve.
The Medal of Honor Museum, which opens on March 22, 2025, will display Munro’s medal for six months. The Museum aims to “preserve the legacies of Medal of Honor recipients and inspire each of us with their humanity, courage, and selflessness.”
The loan is “a great opportunity to bring further awareness to the fact that a member of the Coast Guard has been awarded the Medal of Honor,” Brundage beamed.
Sheehan shares this excitement. His late uncle’s medal, he told MyCG, is “unbelievably relevant today, because it has everything to do with the Coast Guard’s Core Values and culture.” Making the medal accessible to the public, he added, helps bring history to life. “It’s not just a date and a medal; it’s something that really inspires people in the Coast Guard to do their jobs really well.”
Later this year, Munro’s medal will return to the Coast Guard Academy, before it is permanently displayed in the forthcoming National Coast Guard Museum in New London.
Sheehan can’t imagine the medal’s permanent home anywhere else given his family’s history. “My grandmother trained in New London, so it’s a fitting home."
-USCG-
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