Texarkana residents Bill Norton and Greg Bischof are this year's recipients of the prestigious Chapel of Four Chaplains Legion of Honor Award.
Criteria for the honor includes having a giving spirit and offering unconditional service to the community. Qualities that Norton and Bischof both have in spades, said Dr. Dan Bookout, a 2003 recipient of the Four Chaplains service award for his efforts in recovering the remains of lost U.S. military servicemen.
"These men are role models," Bookout said.
Norton, a Navy veteran, and Bischof, a civilian and journalist, were honored Thursday night during a presentation at Texarkana College. Each honoree received a plaque and lapel pin and posed for photos with past honorees.
The Legion of Honor Award program publicly recognizes and honors outstanding members of society whose lives model the giving spirit and unconditional service to community, nation and humanity without regard to race, religion or creed exemplified so dramatically by the Four Chaplains.
The four Army chaplains gave up their life jackets and prayed together when their transport ship, the U.S.A.T Dorchester was torpedoed 80 miles south of Greenland on Feb. 3, 1943.
"They ran out of lifeboats and rafts. Then they ran out of life jackets," Bookout said, as he told the story of the chaplains. "These young men (chaplains) took off their life jackets and gave them to soldiers. The survivors related the story of the four chaplains standing on the ship with their arms linked."
The chaplains came from different faiths and backgrounds.
According to information from the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation, John P. Washington was a Catholic priest from Kearny, N.J., Rabbi Alexander D. Goode was a native of York, Penn. Clark V. Poling was a minister in the Reformed Church in America at First Reformed Church in Schenectady, N.Y. George L. Fox, a decorated World War One veteran, was a Methodist minister in Gilman, Vt.
The Chapel of Four Chaplains is quartered at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia.
To be considered for any of the awards, the selfless and transformative achievement must be above and beyond that of a professional resume or organizational position.
Making the presentation were Army Lt. Col. Bill Smith and Army First Sgt. John Lindsay.
Bookout said the award can only be recommended to a potential recipient by a recipient of the same award. The recommendation has to then be vetted by two committees before the organization's Board of Directors can approve recommendation.
Norton, a Navy veteran, served on a river patrol boat in Vietnam that was known as the "Brown Water Navy."
"These guys were looking for trouble at 15 miles per hour," Bookout said.
After Vietnam, Norton went to college on the G.I. Bill and became a teacher and superintendent.
"He has been a role model to thousands of children," Bookout said.
Bischof received his award for his work writing about veterans and military issues for the Texarkana Gazette.
Bookout compared Bischof to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ernie Pyle, who wrote about American soldiers during World War II.
"We think that in Texarkana we have found such a pearl. He (Bischof) is a journalist and writer who has written about military funerals and combat adventures. He has done a marvelous job for the Texarkana Gazette and for us. He is a friend to veterans," Bookout said.
The event was sponsored jointly by Texarkana College and the Texarkana Gazette and held in conjunction with Flag Day. The Texarkana College Culinary Arts program prepared dinner for the event.