ARIZONA VETERAN HOME STREET NAMED FOR MEDAL OF HONOR HERO

Major General Hugo E. Salazar, Joey Strickland, Director, Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, and Governor Jan Brewer at street renaming ceremony.

Family members of Silvestre Herrera hold up a sign designating the street’s new name.

ARIZONA VETERAN HOME STREET NAMED FOR MEDAL OF HONOR HERO

(Phoenix)-Governor Jan Brewer, Joey Strickland, Director of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, and members of the family of Silvestre Herrera joined the residents of the Arizona State Veteran Home for the official re-naming of the street on which the home is located to S. Herrera Way.

Herrera became the first Arizonan to earn the Medal of Honor during World War II. He also won Mexico's highest honor for valor on the field of battle, the Premier Merito Militar, making him the only person to earn the right to wear both.

In 1945, Herrera was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving his platoon from machine-gun fire near Mertzwiller, France. He lost both legs in the action.

Herrera, who died on November 26, 2007, is well remembered as one of “Arizona’s favorite sons”.