Medal of Honor Recipients Remembered for Service and Dedication to Country

It was a cool, cloudy day on March 25, 2006 at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. The sound of a bagpipe playing ‘Amazing Grace’ could be heard as the crowd listened quietly. As the last strains of the song floated away in the wind, two women unveiled a headstone at the foot of a grave. It read: “George Franklin Shiels, Medal of Honor, Surg(eon), U.S. Army, Apr 13, 1863 - Oct 26 1943”. The ceremony continued with special guest speakers, including Shiels’ great-grandniece, Alison Giesea Adams. Then full military honors and the presentation of the California and the U.S. flag to Ms. Adams. The ceremony over, some of the crowd lingered for a while, looking at the headstone and talking about the man they had just honored.

So who was George Franklin Shiels and why did he deserve such honors? The headstone says it all: “Medal of Honor”. Dr. Shiels is one of over a hundred Medal of Honor recipients in California whose graves are not marked with this distinction. It isn’t intentional. The families are either not aware that that a member of their family was honored with their nation’s highest honor, or they were not aware that the government would provide a headstone at the time of the funeral. Whatever the case may be, Dr. Shiels is not alone.