SEMINOLE, Fla. — Avery Bates remembers the day a local hero came into his family restaurant.
“He talked to my dad and one of the bartenders,” the high school sophomore said, recalling the day Gary Littrell visited Sea Critters Café. “He was a really nice guy.”
On Wednesday, Bates’ classmates got the same honor of spending time with Littrell, a St. Pete Beach resident and one of just 70 living recipients of the Medal of Honor. Littrell spoke to a room of more than 100 students at Richard O. Jacobson Technical High School and explained the importance of living a virtuous life.
“Integrity is the most important word in the world,” he said.
Littrell earned his Medal of Honor for his service advising Army Rangers in Vietnam. He is credited with leading an attack that defeated 5,000 enemies of the United States.
The high school students studied Gary's career leading up to today's visit. They got a chance to ask him questions about his service.
“To be able to meet someone who’s been in these tough situations, who has made tougher decisions than any of us has and experienced what true fear is, I just think that’s just astonishing,” sophomore Devin Lambert said.
Littrell’s visit was part of a day of visits by the 46 MOH recipients in town for a week-long convention spread across multiple schools and counties. It’s a chance for kids to see the men they’ve read about in social studies classes.
“When you hear their stories, they say ‘I’m wearing this medal for someone else. I’m wearing it for the men who were with me,’” teacher Holly Roush said.
The Medal of Honor Character Development Program was created by the Medal of Honor Foundation to raise awareness in the American public about the legacy of the Medal of Honor, educate today’s youth about the character traits inherent in the Medal of Honor and its recipients and inspire people to find these traits of integrity, sacrifice, courage, patriotism, citizenship, and commitment within themselves.
The program incorporates the ideals of integrity, commitment and selfless service into the elementary, middle and high school curriculum to build character and form responsible citizenship.
The Medal of Honor Convention Tampa Bay has already trained more than 800 teachers from all different subject areas in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas County schools.
“It’s an honor to sit there and listen to someone who said they only did their job when it seems like they went above and beyond this world to sacrifice whatever they had for us,” Bates said. “He didn’t have to do what he did but he went above and beyond and risked it all.”
Bates and his classmates listened to Littrell before returning to their classrooms. The chance to meet a walking hero is something they said they’ll cherish.
“He inspired me by how he never gave up,” freshman Emersen Gonzalez said.
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