About This Stamp
The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, is presented “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty.” In January 2012, the U.S. Postal Service invited the last living recipients of the award from World War II to join in honoring the extraordinary courage of every individual who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the war. All the men pictured here agreed to participate in this momentous event. Sadly, Senator Daniel K. Inouye and Vernon McGarity died before the stamps could be issued, as did Nicholas Oresko and John D. Hawk, who died after the stamps were printed. Their photographs are still included, as they remain among the last representatives of a remarkable group whose courage and devotion we honor with this issuance.
Historic photos of the men surround two Forever® stamps on the first page of a new type of issuance, the prestige folio. One stamp features a photograph of the Navy version of the Medal of Honor; the other stamp features a photograph of the Army version of the award. The two center pages list the names of all the recipients of the Medal of Honor from World War II. The remaining 18 stamps are found on the back page.
More than 16 million people served with the American armed forces during World War II, but only 464 were chosen to receive the Medal of Honor. The road to receiving this medal is a long one. Each recipient's actions are reviewed by a lengthy chain of command, starting with their superiors and ending with the Secretary of Defense and the President. More than half the men who received the Medal of Honor for their actions during World War II were killed in action.
Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps and the new format, working with photographs of the medals by Richard Frasier. Each Medal of Honor: World War II prestige folio contains 20 Forever® stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.
Art Director
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Artist
Richard Frasier
Richard Frasier was born in 1948 in Cobleskill, New York. As a child living on his family farm, he fell in love with photography. “From the very beginning, I knew the camera was a magical tool, a way to express myself and to capture and share the beauty and wonder that surrounds us all,\" he explains. \"For me, photography is about beauty.\"
Frasier studied psychology at Frostburg State University in Maryland but honed his photography skills while serving in the Army and later as an apprentice to several master photographers. Today, he specializes in portraits, landscapes, architecture, and studio product shots. He has done work for editorial, corporate, and advertising clients both locally and nationally for more than 20 years, including international hotels such as Marriott, Sheraton, and Hilton. His portraiture features everyone from political personalities such as Dick Cheney, Laura Bush and Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Obama, to celebrities such as Robert Duval, Cokie Roberts, and Lionel Ritchie.
Frasier has been the official photographer for the Virginia Gold Cup steeplechase for 20 years, which has given him an additional specialty in equestrian photography. He maintains a studio in Northern Virginia and markets a line of greeting cards showcasing Washington, D.C.
When not at work, Frasier is an avid gardener. He lives with his family in Vienna, Virginia.
Frasier's projects for the U.S. Postal Service include Medal of Honor: World War II (2013), Medal of Honor: Korean War (2014), Medal of Honor: Vietnam War (2015), and Honoring Extraordinary Herosim: Service Cross Medals (2016).