Freedom Award Recipients

Knowing of the millions of young children in bondage in his home country of India has led Kailash Satyarthi to become the foremost advocate in ending the triumvirate of child labor, poverty and illiteracy and one of the architects of the Global Campaign for Education. He founded the Save the Child Movement in 1980, which is the initiator of the first regional South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude. His solution to eventually ending child labor is achieving "education for all" and empowering consumers to take a stand against child labor.

Calvin W. Elton Jr.

Calvin W. Elton Jr. was in the Army Air Corp, stationed in the Philippine Islands on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and then invaded the Philippines. After four months of trying to hold them off, the Americans surrendered and struggled through long marches, illness, starvation and forced labor. Elton remained a prisoner of war until the war ended in 1945, then he returned to the United States and graduated from the University of Utah, then spent another 20 years in the Army.

Gen. Ronald E. Keys

A day in the life of Gen. Ronald E. Keys includes oversight of 1,100 aircraft, wings, bases and 105,000 active-duty and civilian personnel. As commander of the Air Combat Command, headquartered in Langley, Va., Keys is responsible for organizing, training, equipping and maintaining combat-ready forces to deploy at any time, while keeping strategic air defense forces prepared to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty. He's been flying since being commissioned an officer in 1967 after ROTC at Kansas State University.

Lt. Col. Mark E. Mitchell

Three soldiers have been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the war on terror. Mitchell is one of them. During a rescue operation in the middle of a battle in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, in November 2001, Mitchell, the commander, rescued one soldier, brought back the body of another and was instrumental in ensuring the city did not fall back to the Taliban. According to the statement at the time of his award, "His personal example has added yet another laurel to the proud military history of this nation and serves as a standard for all others to emulate."

Michael Schafir

Michael Schafir of Poland spent most of his teenage years in German concentration camps. As he marched from camp to camp, he watched those around him die. He survived the Holocaust that killed almost 50 of his family members and 40,000 Jews from the city of his birth. At the age of 18, weighing 75 pounds, an American soldier selected Schafir as one who could still be saved. He was, and years later he emigrated to the United States, attended medical school at Tulane University and served as a doctor in the Air Force before moving to California to set up his practice and get married.

Staff Sgt. Gregson G. Gourley

His family and friends called the Murray man the "Gentle Warrior." Gregson Gourley, following a family tradition, joined the Army National Guard and served as an engineer during Operation Desert Storm. After that conflict, he transferred into the Special Forces, completed airborne training and enlisted in the Army. Gourley served 11 months during the initial invasion of Iraq, and one month into his second tour of duty he was killed Feb. 22 by a roadside bomb. His wife, Collette, their four children and his parents, Jerome and Judy, represented Gourley.

Information from the Freedom Festival Magazine

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A2.