McGhee Tyson Airport prepares for Medal of Honor event

ALCOA, Tenn. (WVLT) - Knoxville is the host of this year’s Medal of Honor ceremony- the highest award given out to military personnel. With festivities planned throughout the week, past recipients of the award arrived in east Tennessee on Tuesday.

McGhee Tyson Airport has hosted an exhibit on its main concourse. It features about 50 cards, each one highlights a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Many of the soldiers fought in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq. They all made sacrifices. The medal is only given to military personnel who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, usually risking their own life.

People passing through the airport stopped Tuesday at the exhibit to honor the heroes, and to read their stories.

“You don’t get it like you get other medals,” said Danny Warrensford, a retired Air Force officer who stopped at the exhibit. “It’s like trying to become a saint, there’s a vetting process. Your boss doesn’t just say hey, you get a Medal of Honor, good job. It has to go through congress; it’s a Congressional Medal of Honor.”

The Medal of Honor ceremonies in Knoxville begin on Wednesday and run through Saturday. There will be four recipients of the medal this year, one of them posthumously.

It’s the second time Knoxville has hosted the celebration, with the other being in 2014. Warrensford said it’s really cool, as a veteran, to have the ceremonies right here in east Tennessee.

The Medal of Honor was first given out in 1863, when Abraham Lincoln was president. Since then, 3,511 medals have been given out. Only 65 of those recipients are alive today.

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