2024 Award Winners

Each year, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation presents a series of awards to both Marines and civilian community members recognizing their exemplary work in advancing and preserving Marine Corps history. The 2024 Awards will be presented during a special ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

Each winner receives a gold medallion, a commemorative brick installed along the pathway in Semper Fidelis Memorial Park adjacent to the National Museum of the Marine Corps and a cash prize, if applicable. 

The honorees and award winners this year include:

The Lejeune Recognition for Exemplary Leadership Award

The Lieutenant General John A. Lejeune Recognition for Exemplary Leadership recognizes an individual who has demonstrated leadership in their chosen profession or appointed or elected position that is clearly exemplary and worthy of emulation.The recipient must epitomize the core values of honor, courage and commitment and practice the leadership traits and principles ascribed to by General Lejeune and the United States Marine Corps.

2024 Recipient:
Gen John F. Kelly USMC (Ret)
For his service as a Marine for over 45 years, Secretary of Homeland Security and White House Chief of Staff

The Heritage Award

The Heritage Award recognizes an individual who has provided unique and significant service to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in the fulfillment of its mission to preserve and promulgate the history, traditions and culture of the Marine Corps and educate all Americans in its virtues.

2024 Recipient:
Mr. Stephen M. Elms
Longtime supporter of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and former owner of Marine Shop and Officers Equipment Company

The Colonel Joseph Alexander Award

This award recognizes a distinguished work of biographical or autobiographical literature about a Marine and is given in memory of Colonel Joe Alexander, historian, author and longtime friend of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

​2024 Recipient:
Col Richard D. Camp USMC (Ret)
For Lieutenant General Edward A. Craig - Warrior Six: Combat Leader in World War II and Korea

The Master Sergeant Tom Bartlett Award

Named for the late Managing Editor of Leatherneck magazine and a leading Marine photojournalist, this award is given for superior writing pertinent to Marine Corps history during the preceding year by an enlisted writer in any medium.

​2024 Recipient:
Mac Caltrider
For 200 Years Ago, the Marines Helped Save the Declaration of Independence

The Corporal Jan Bender Award

Named for leading combat correspondent and contributor to the international, digital coverage of Operation Al Fajr, the Second Battle of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, the award is given to individuals who have produced and/or published digital media about subjects related to U.S. Marine Corps history, heritage, legacy, traditions, its culture and daily life.​

​2024 Recipients:
Damien O'Connell
For Controversy and Clarity (Voices of HKIA Series) - Major Samuel McGrury
​
Daniel G. Zimmerman
For "Battlefield Secured" graphics

Damien O'Connell

Daniel G. Zimmerman

The Lieutenant William Broyles Award

This award is named for the Vietnam veteran and screenwriter of Flags of Our Fathers, Jarhead, Apollo 13, Castaway and Khe Sanh. It is given to a playwright or screenwriter for a dramatic work dealing with U.S. Marine Corps heritage or Marine Corps life. 

​2024 Recipient:
LtCol John B. Lang USMC (Ret)
For A Final Valiant Act

The Sergeant Major Dan Daly Award

This award was established in memory of the legendary recipient of two Medals of Honor. It recognizes a distinguished collection of still photography by an individual, consisting of black and white or color photographs capturing U.S. Marines or Marine Corps life.

​2024 Recipient:
GySgt Melissa Marnell USMC
For Faces in Chaos

The Robert A. Gannon Award

The Robert A. Gannon Award named after the noted poet, is given for a volume of original verse by a Marine poet dealing with Marine Corps life.

​2024 Recipient:
Benjamin Fortier
For Phantoms

The General Roy S. Geiger Award

This award is sponsored by Colonel G. F. Robert Hanke USMCR, in memory of his father, Wing Commander Ralph Hanke, Royal Air Force and is named for General Geiger, the fifth designated naval aviator in Marine Corps history, who commanded both air and ground units during World War II. It is given to the author of the best article in the field of Marine Corps Aviation published during the preceding year.

2024 Recipient:
Patrick Reed
For VMFT-401: The Corps' Adversary Squadron

The Sergeant William Genaust Award

This award is named for the motion picture cameraman who filmed the 1945 flag raising on Mount Suribachi shortly before he was killed in action on Iwo Jima. It is given to the producer of a short documentary (motion picture with a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits) dealing creatively with U.S. Marine Corps heritage or Marine Corps life. An eligible documentary film is defined as a non-fiction motion picture photographed in actual occurrence. The subject may also employ stock footage, stills, interviews, animation or other techniques, with emphasis on fact, not on fiction.

2024 Recipients:
MSgt Daniel Brown USMC, Cpl Emily Hazelbaker USMC, SSgt Josue Marquez USMC, and CWO4 Izzel Sanchez USMC
​For Combat Artists

MSgt Daniel Brown USMC

Cpl Emily Hazelbaker USMC

SSgt Josue Marquez USMC

CWO4 Izzel Sanchez USMC

The Colonel Julia E. Hamblet Award

Named for the longest serving Director of Women Marines, this award is funded by a bequest from the estate of Lotus Mort and judged by the Women Marines Association. It is given to the individual or team who has done the most to further the recognition of the history of women who have earned the title Marine.

2024 Recipient:
MSgt Jeannine Franz USMC (Ret)
​

The Major Norman Hatch Award

​The Major Norman Hatch Award, named for the pioneer combat camera team leader whose color motion picture footage at Tarawa and Iwo Jima, among many other accomplishments, brought the Marine Corps story vividly to the American people, is given for the best documentary (longer than 40 minutes) videotape dealing with historical or current Marine Corps subjects.

2024 Recipient:
James Bluemel
For Once Upon A Time in Iraq: Fallujah

The Colonel Robert D. Heinl, Jr. Award

This award is given in memory of the distinguished Marine Corps officer, journalist and historian who was also a founder of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and author of Soldiers of the Sea. The award is for a distinguished example of feature writing by an individual dealing with U.S. Marine Corps history or Marine Corps life, giving prime consideration for high literary quality and originality.

2024 Recipient:
Michael Archer
For A Deadly Dilemma

The Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal Award

This award is named for the Marine awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions in the Battle for Fallujah and given for a distinguished example of a single still photograph by an individual which captures the character of the individual Marine or the core values of the U.S. Marine Corps.

2024 Recipient:
Sgt Cameron Hermanet USMC
For 1st Battalion, 4th Marines; Chilean naval infantry climb Mount Tarn

The Colonel John H. Magruder III Award

This award is named for the first director of the Marine Corps Museum. It is given to an individual or an organization that makes available to the public an exhibit pertaining to Marine Corps history. The exhibit portrays panels, text, art and/or artifacts at a traveling or fixed location.  The exhibits must be displayed in the previous calendar year and be available to the public for a period of at least six months. 

​2024 Recipients:
Thomas Kiefner, the late Col Edwin Kiefner USMCR (Ret), LtCol Ron Gruenberg USMC (Ret), Michael L. Warren II and Blake Kiefner
For One Battalion's Sacrifice Exhibit at Missouri's National Veterans Memorial in Perryville, MO

Thomas Kiefner

LtCol Ron Gruenberg USMC (Ret)

Michael L. Warren II

Blake Kiefner

The Major Megan McClung Award

The Major Megan McClung Award is named for the first female Marine Corps officer killed in combat during the Iraq War where she was serving as a public affairs officer. The award is given for distinguished example of reporting by an individual covering U.S. Marines abroad.

2024 Recipient:
Irene Loewenson
For How Marines brought order to the skies during the Kabul airlift

The Eugene Sledge Award

This award is presented for the best memoir published during the preceding three years and named for the Marine Corporal, university professor and author of With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.

2024 Recipient:
Andrew Milburn
For When the Tempest Gathers

The General Oliver P. Smith Award

This award is named for the Commanding General of the First Marine Division in Korea who, through his steadfast leadership in the field, created the circumstances for future viability and growth of the Marine Corps. The award is given for for a distinguished example of local news reporting by an individual that illuminates the U.S. Marine Corps' relationship with local communities.

2024 Recipient:
Erika Ritchie
For Marine veterans find a new mission as firefighters helping people 'having their worst day'

The Colonel John W. Thomason, Jr. Award

This award was established in memory of this decorated combat officer known for his artwork illustrating Marines in World War I, China and Latin America. It is given to an individual for a distinguished work depicting some aspect of Marine Corps Life. Media may include sculptures, paintings, drawings and illustrations in color or black and white. Computer graphics are considered, but art used must be original work.

2024 Recipient:
Elize McKelvey
For multiple works of art