Photo By Aaron Perkins | A photo illustration representing the National Medal of Honor Highway, featuring...... read more read more
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SALEM, Ore. – It’s the nation's longest U.S. highway, stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, weaving through a dozen states, offering diverse landscapes while accentuating the remarkable distinctiveness of the country. It connects vibrant, large, and small towns framed by majestic mountains, revealing breathtaking vistas that gracefully transform from high desert plains to expansive prairies and fertile farmland. It nudges the boundless panoramas of the Great Lakes and finally culminates at its eastern terminus, in the bustling streets near Fenway Park. Along the way, this prominent highway avowals the last remaining Blockbuster video store, tucked away in Bend, Oregon, like a cinematic outpost, embodying both nostalgia and resilience.
U.S. Route 20 begins in the picturesque fishing and tourist town of Newport, Oregon, and stretches 3,365 miles east to the “birthplace of the American Revolution," in Boston, Massachusetts. On December 17, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden signed bipartisan legislation spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), designating U.S. Route 20 as the National Medal of Honor Highway.
“It’s now fitting that our country’s longest continuous highway should be dedicated to our veterans who have continuously served and protected our country from ‘sea to shining sea,’” Wyden said in a released statement. “I’m gratified the National Medal of Honor Highway now stands as a timeless tribute to the heroes of Oregon and America who helped make this grassroots movement a reality.”
The passage of this bill embodies the same national spirit of honoring ‘heroism and sacrifice,’ akin to Public Law 101-564, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on November 15, 1990, designating March 25 as National Medal of Honor Day.
This federal holiday serves as a potent reminder of the immense gratitude owed to those courageous members of the armed forces who have, as stated in the writing of the bill, “distinguished themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own lives” and who have consistently risen above the call of duty.
Drawing upon the original language for the 1990 bill, Rep. Kelly said, “This bipartisan, bicameral legislation honors the extraordinary sacrifice, courage, and devotion exhibited by every single Medal of Honor recipient,” as he introduced the National Medal of Honor Highway for the final vote in the House of Representatives on Dec. 9, 2024.
“Including in my own district in Erie County Pennsylvania…the 12 states along U.S. Highway 20 account for about 62 percent of all 3,516 Medal of Honor awards presented since the Civil War,” Kelly said, underscoring the widespread support from each of the state's governors and legislative bodies. “Designation of U.S. Highway 20 would ensure all recipients and any future recipients from all 50 states and territories are honored.”
The legislation was supported by an extensive group of military organizations including the Military Officers Association of America, the American Legion, the Legion of Valor, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States, and the Bend [Oregon] Heroes Foundation.
“They were willing to give their lives while saving others. For their sacrifice, they were awarded the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest award for military valor,” said Army Lt. Col. (ret.) Dick Tobiason, when the legislation was formally introduced in May of 2023. As the Chairman of Bend Heroes Foundation and the initiator of the National Medal of Honor Highway, Tobiason has dedicated the effort of renaming U.S. Highway 20 to his friend, fellow compatriot, and Medal of Honor recipient Robert “Bob” Maxwell.
Tobiason recently sat for an extended interview on Oct. 2, 2024, with Morgen Young from the Oregon State Capitol Oral History Project, where he detailed his long friendship with Maxwell, veteran’s projects he has tackled, and touched on his own military service.
“When I moved here to Bend 32 years ago we had a motorhome, and we did a lot of traveling, and I would see these highway signs across the United States, ‘Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway’ or 'Vietnam Veterans’ or something. We don’t have that in Oregon. We don’t even have any flags in town,” Tobiason said, recalling how the idea for the highway project intersected with Maxwell and built over time to other endeavors.
The retired Army aviator who had served two tours in Vietnam is no stranger to taking on daunting projects and working with war heroes. He was given the task of organizing five “Huey” (UH-1 Iroquois) helicopters for the evacuation of 27 prisoners of war in Lộc Ninh on Feb. 13, 1973, as part of Operation Homecoming. A total of 591 POWs were freed following the Paris Peace Accords, which brought an end to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
“It was a very traumatic thing. It’s February. It’s getting dark, and when are we going to get these guys in a helicopter?” Tobiason said, still questioning that implausible mission. “So eventually we did (get them loaded and evacuated) and in my helicopter, all five of them held hands and sang 'God Bless America.'
Using the same tenacity for freeing Vietnam POWs, Tobiason decided to do something about building veterans' outreach opportunities in the local community and found through random calls that Bend had a Medal of Honor recipient living in town. He was hoping to start with a flag program with the Boy Scouts and ROTC cadets working with local veterans groups.
“That’s when we had phone books. So, I looked for Robert D. Maxwell. I found a Robert G., so I called the number,” Tobiason said, hoping he had found the correct ‘Robert Maxwell.’ “Are you Bob Maxwell, the Medal of Honor recipient?” He said, “Yes, I am.” At the time, he only lived four miles from here. So, I said, “Can I come and see you?” Without any hesitation, he said, “Sure.”
Working together, they received approval from the park district to build a memorial in Bend, and after 15 years of effort, the Bend Heroes Memorial in Brooks Park was inaugurated in 2006. It honors the 113 names of Bend veterans who were killed in WWI to the present. Other veteran projects in Bend and around the state soon followed under Tobiason’s leadership as the Chairman of the Bend Heroes Foundation, but it was in 2017 that he began working on the Medal of Honor Highway project.
“So, I promised Bob, I said, ‘I’m going to get across the United States,’ I promised him,” Tobiason said, detailing the long process to create the Medal of Honor Highway in his OSCF Oral History Project interview. “It took five years, and he (Maxwell) died while I was doing it, and I got him to two dedication ceremonies in Oregon. One is here in Bend, and one is in Newport, where the highway starts. I said, ‘Bob, you’ve got to be at the coast where the highway starts. It ends in my hometown, Boston, where I was born, a mile from the hospital I was born.’”
Tobiason said it was not easy because Maxwell was in poor health in his later life but made the trip to Newport because of the project. He became the center of attention during his visit.
“The Coast Guard took us down to their rescue boat and had lunch with them,” Tobiason said, recalling that day with a laugh. “...and Bob’s there with a [Medal of Honor Highway] sign, with all those people.”
Tobiason continued to work with Maxwell on the highway effort until his death on May 11, 2019, nearly 74 years after first earning the nation's highest honor for valor.
Robert Dale Maxwell was born on Oct. 26, 1920, in Boise, Idaho, and he dropped out of school in the seventh grade to help work on his family farm during the Great Depression. His Quaker grandfather had profoundly influenced him at a young age, but the attack by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941, would alter the course of his life.
“I envision myself as a conscientious objector,” Maxwell told an interviewer after receiving the Medal of Honor, “but when Pearl Harbor happened and other people around me were going to war, I felt that it was not only my duty but my privilege to serve the country.”
After enlisting in the Army in July 1940, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division as a communication technician, commonly referred to as “a wire man," responsible for carrying heavy rolls of cable for the phone lines connecting to the command post. During early operations in combat, his missions took him to North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, culminating in the invasion of southern France during Operation Dragoon in August 1944.
“Besançon is a crossroads city in the area between France, Switzerland, and Germany, and our headquarters were set up in a house, with a stone wall erected about three or four feet high surrounding the house. The Germans had inflated past our rifle companies on the flank, to our left and right… surrounding the command post and it was in danger of being captured,” Maxwell said, detailing the scene of the battle involving his actions on Sept. 7, 1944, during a formal video interview for "The Medal of Honor Book" series.
As the fighting intensified and pressed on into the pre-dawn hours of darkness, Maxwell and three other American soldiers held their ground behind a stone wall while returning fire against the enemy. Without warning, a German grenade landed near his feet. Maxwell’s first instinct was to throw it back. But the grenade was hard to find in the dark, and he realized he didn’t have time.
"I heard it land and couldn’t see any sign of it… realizing my time was up (after locating it) and all I could really do was grab my blanket [lying on the ground] next to me and just shove it up to my chest and drop on it.”
Maxwell was initially knocked unconscious. When he awoke, he discovered that he was alone. His fellow soldiers had evacuated, leaving him behind because they believed he was dead. Maxwell somehow managed to drag himself toward the house, where he found his platoon leader disconnecting the last phone lines and preparing to leave. Together, they were able to escape the compound before being overrun by Nazi soldiers.
The citation for his heroic actions dutifully recounts his selfless actions that day in Besançon.
“Despite a hail of fire from automatic weapons and grenade launchers, Technician 5th Grade Maxwell aggressively fought off advancing enemy elements and, by his calmness, tenacity, and fortitude, inspired his fellows to continue the unequal struggle. When an enemy hand grenade was thrown in the midst of his squad, Technician 5th Grade Maxwell unhesitatingly hurled himself squarely upon it, using his blanket and his unprotected body to absorb the full force of the explosion. This act of instantaneous heroism permanently maimed Technician 5th Grade Maxwell, but saved the lives of his comrades in arms and facilitated maintenance of vital military communications during the temporary withdrawal of the battalion's forward headquarters.”
After recovering from his injuries, he received the Medal of Honor from Maj. Gen. Clarence Danielson in May 1945 and would be heading home with thousands of his comrades from Europe.
In the years to follow, Maxwell would make Bend, Oregon, his home, teaching automobile mechanics to high school and community college students. He met his wife Beatrice after the war, and together they raised four daughters. The day that Dick Tobiason first showed up to meet Maxwell at his home, Maxwell was teaching one of his daughters how to fix the brakes on her Volkswagen Bug - still putting 30 years of teaching auto repair skills to good use.
The affection and admiration that Tobiason had for Maxwell was shared by nearly everyone who met him, including his high school and college students in Bend, his local ‘Band of Brothers’ group in Oregon, and other service members he met at many of the events he was invited to attend.
During Veterans Day events in 2010 in Albany, Oregon, Maxwell was invited to attend the Linn County Veterans Day Parade and the Commemoration Association Awards Banquet the night before as their honorary guest speaker, along with Brig. Gen. Bruce Prunk, the Oregon Air National Guard commander. While delivering his remarks, the message wasn’t immersed in his battlefield bravery or comparing the trials and tribulations of different generations but focused on service to the nation and the community, even after taking off the uniform.
“It’s great to be in a room of veterans and those still wearing our nation’s uniform,” he said. “I know for many of you, whether you served one term or more, your oath has no expiration.”
His message that evening hit home with Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Lacer, who had just returned after a year-long mobilization in Afghanistan with the 162nd Engineer Company, headquartered in Dallas, Oregon.
While deployed, Oregon Citizen-Soldiers played a crucial role in bomb clearing over 15,000 miles of roads during more than 6,000 active missions, disposing of nearly 200 IEDs. Their outstanding service earned unit members 13 Bronze Star Medals and five Purple Heart Medals.
“I’ve just been home a few days, and then I got a notice to attend tonight’s banquet and represent my unit,” Lacer said, still somewhat awe-struck from meeting Maxwell. “I’ve never met anyone who has been awarded the Medal of Honor, and didn’t realize Mr. Maxwell was our (Oregon) only living recipient.”
This, in many regards, is exactly why Tobiason believed in the deep symbolism of the Medal of Honor Highway and the inspiration he found in Maxwell’s life and story.
“It helps us remember, and we need to make sure that veterans are not forgotten," he said. "These are the people who saved the world from tyranny.”
“When Dick found out that Route 20 went from coast to coast, he took up the challenge to make sure the Medal of Honor highway went coast to coast,” said J.W. Terry, Executive Director of Central Oregon Veterans Outreach and a friend of Tobiason, while being interviewed by the Central Oregon Daily News on February 2024, at the Oregon State Capitol. Tobiason was being honored by the Oregon House of Representatives for his lifetime of service with a House Concurrent Resolution introduced in the opening legislative session. “He just doesn’t stop; he’s like the little engine that could,” Terry said.
Tobiason and Maxwell built 38 different veterans projects together, a friendship that has left multiple life-long contributions to the region, state, and country. The memorials stand as reminders of what they did for the world.
“He was just a humble guy that did things he saw that needed to be done,” Tobiason said in an interview with KTVZ news on May 11, 2020, on the first anniversary of Maxwell’s passing. “He didn’t talk about it, he just did it. He was an example of a great American hero that everybody knows him to be. Great citizen, great Christian, great dad, great grandfather, and a great friend to all.”
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2025 23:05 |
| Story ID: | 493642 |
| Location: | SALEM, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 239 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The National Medal of Honor Highway crosses America and connects a nation, by John Hughel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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