Living Medal Of Honor Recipients To Be Honored In Texas

Nearly 3,500 military men and women have received the Medal of Honor. Only 80 of them are still alive today.

The city of Gainesville, Texas, is paying special tribute to those homefront heroes this week.

Residents welcomed them with open arms and will host various activities in their honor this weekend to thank them for their service.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, 32, is the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient.

"I'm really excited to see this whole experience and to be in the same room as some of these… other great heroes and to just get kind of that old advice from what they've already seen and done," Romesha said.

The Medal of Honor is the highest honor of valor given to our America's military heroes.

Residents of each city along the way from DFW to Gainesville lined Interstate 35, waving and saluting the mile-long motorcade, led by Patriot Guard riders.

This is the fifth time Cpl. Duane Dewey has ridden in this motorcade, and he is always touched by the response.

"It's always very awesome," he said. "And just to see all these people along the road and on overpasses and so forth and so on, and the fire trucks and American flags."

Each recipient's story is different, but they say they're a part of a brotherhood and Medal of Honor week brings them together to share their experiences.

"It's a reunion for us to get together and have the camaraderie and the friendship and the brotherhood," Corpsman Second Class Don Ballard said. "But, more meaningfully, it's an opportunity to get in to the communities and meet with the school kids and the community leaders, and you know, share with them our values. And they're very receptive here. It's the most patriotic city in America."

We'll have more on this story tonight at 5 p.m.

CBS affiliate KXII contributed to this story