🎖️ Valor Through the Lens

The only Medal of Honor ever awarded to a combat photographer is now on public display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where it is featured in the Medal of Honor Gallery within the museum’s Price of Freedom exhibition.

The medal belonged to Marine Corps Cpl. William Thomas Perkins Jr., who was killed at just 20 years old during the Vietnam War. On October 12, 1967, while serving in Quang Tri Province during Operation Medina, Perkins sacrificed his life by throwing himself on a grenade to shield three fellow Marines from the blast. For that act of extraordinary bravery, the Marine Corps posthumously awarded him the nation’s highest military honor.

In 2015, Perkins’ mother, Marilane Perkins Jacobson of Lexington, Kentucky, donated her son’s Medal of Honor, personal letters, and other belongings to the Smithsonian’s permanent Armed Forces collections.

“I didn’t want his things sitting in a cardboard box somewhere,” Jacobson said. “They belonged where people could see them and remember him.”

The exhibit also includes Perkins’ Purple Heart, wartime photographs, and his Bell & Howell camera, which still bears damage from the explosion that killed him. The camera, on loan from the National Museum of the Marine Corps, is being displayed alongside the Medal of Honor for the first time. The acquisition was assisted by Jeff Garrett, a member of the museum’s advisory board.

The Medal of Honor, first authorized during the Civil War, is awarded for clearly documented acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. More than 3,400 medals have been presented since its creation, and the Smithsonian’s Medal of Honor Gallery tells those stories through artifacts, personal items, and interactive displays.

Jacobson has said that while her son’s medal meant everything to her, she knew it needed a permanent home. “I can’t take it with me,” she told the Associated Press in 2015. “I just wanted to make sure it ended up where it would be protected forever.”

Perkins’ passion for photography began at home. His father worked for Eastman Kodak, and cameras were a constant presence in his life. That interest ultimately shaped his military path.

According to Jacobson, her son joined the Marines because they were willing to let him work with a Mitchell 35mm motion picture camera, a model commonly used in Hollywood at the time.

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War exhibition traces U.S. military history from the French and Indian War to modern conflicts, focusing not only on battles, but on how war has influenced American politics, society, technology, and personal sacrifice. At its core, the exhibit emphasizes the experiences of citizen soldiers and the families they leave behind.

Asked what she hopes visitors take away from her son’s story, Jacobson was candid.

“I hated the war,” she said. “It was a waste. But not many people throw themselves on grenades to save others. I hope people see his character. He lived a full lifetime in just 20 years.”