Day 20: The First Honoree

     If you walk out of the AMC theater on Illinois Street and take a right, then take a left on Columbus.  Walk about half a block south, and you'll see a park with benches.  A sign identifies this as Milton L. Olive III Park.  The layout itself is very much like Pritzker Park,  but what makes this unique is who this particular park is named for.  Milton Olive III was a Private in the United States Army during the Vietnam War who was originally from Chicago.  On October 22, 1965, his unit was attacked by the Viet Cong.  In the scrum, there was a live grenade thrown at his unit.  Noticing this, Pvt. Olive immediately jumped on the grenade, saving the lives of four fellow soldiers while costing him his own.  For his selfless sacrifice, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, thus making him the first African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War.  On April 21, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson held a ceremony on the White House steps where Olive's medal was presented to his parents.  In 1979, the City of Chicago dedicated a park to Milton Olive, and that park still remains to this day.