November 25, 1945

Arkansas’s only Medal of Honor recipient for actions in the Vietnam War, Nicky Bacon, was born in Caraway (Craighead County), although his financially struggling family moved to Arizona in the 1950s. In addition to winning the Medal of Honor, Bacon served for more than a decade as the director of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, championing many programs for Arkansas’s veterans and playing an instrumental part in the erection of a memorial honoring all of Arkansas’s Medal of Honor recipients.