October’s Young Heroes receive Medals Of Honor

  • Published
  • By Mike Wallace
  • Skywrighter Staff
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  At noon, Oct. 4, at Wright-Patterson's Chapel 3 in the Prairies at Wright Field, siblings Ada Lillian Kingston and Timothy Desmond Kingston received Young Heroes Medals of Honor.

The two were accompanied at the ceremony by their parents, Paula and Niall Kingston, and their brothers, Simon and Leo.

The Young Heroes program recognizes the courage and valor of young people who fight serious or chronic childhood diseases or serious, accident-related injuries. Ada is a Down Syndrome child, and Desmond was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at age five.

Ada is making progress, especially in communication, with help from Leo, and Desmond is winning the battle with his disease which is currently in remission.

Presenting the Medals of Honor was Lt. Col. Rory G. Owen, chief of aerospace medicine and experimental safety in the Air Force Research Laboratory's human effectiveness directorate. Emcee for the event was Maj. Sidney M. Goehring, of the Air Force Institute of Technology.

The base honor guard posted the colors, and Chaplain Dwayne Jones offered prayers.