Clara Burns listened intently as her younger brother’s death was recounted Wednesday night at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum.

Lance Cpl. William Prom, a machine gun leader in the 3rd Marines Division who grew up in Pittsburgh and Millvale, was marching alongside two platoons returning from a reconnaissance mission on Feb. 9, 1969, when they were attacked by a barrage of fire from well-concealed North Vietnamese forces, according to Prom’s Medal of Honor citation signed by President Nixon.

As he read it aloud to several dozen people gathered at the museum’s special event, Prom’s nephew choked back tears, pausing to catch his breath before reading the rest of the document.

With bullets and grenades flying toward him, Prom immediately took control of a machine gun and returned fire. He managed to render aid to fellow wounded Marines, help them take cover and deliver “a heavy volume of fire with such accuracy that he was instrumental in routing the enemy, thus permitting his men to regroup and resume the march.”

Then came more rapid sprays of bullets, injuring several men, including Prom.

“Unable to continue his own fire because of his severe wounds, (Prom) continued to advance to within a few yards of the enemy positions,” the citation says. “There, standing in full view of the enemy, he accurately directed the fire of his support elements until he was mortally wounded. Inspired by his heroic actions, the Marines launched an assault that destroyed the enemy.”

Burns, 87, was 16 when her brother, whom she simply calls Billy, was born.

“He was my little baby,” said Burns, recalling that the Millvale High School student loved playing sports and would get noticeably shy around girls. He’d dreamed of playing professional baseball, and if he couldn’t, then he wanted to be a police officer — “another thing that they go out every day, they don’t know if they’re going to come back,” Burns said.

Prom was 20 when he died in combat during the Vietnam War nearly 51 years ago. He is buried in Allison Park.

“He was very brave,” Burns said. “He didn’t have to die. But he went out to save his friends. And that’s what made him a hero.”

New exhibit honors 7

Burns was among several relatives who gathered Wednesday to mourn, celebrate and honor seven military service members who died in combat and received the Medal of Honor for their heroic deeds during an event unveiling the latest permanent exhibit at the museum in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood: “Seven Local Heroes.”

“As old as I am, I’m glad to be here,” said Burns, who will turn 88 next month. “It’s so important to me when I see all these people remembering Billy. I hope it lives on and on and on, to something that I won’t see.”

Inside the museum’s Hall of Valor room, seven freshly installed, climate-controlled glass cases with protective LED lighting encase seven of the medals dating from the Civil War to Vietnam, along with the stories of the Western Pennsylvanians killed in combat who received them.

“It’s great for us to unveil these today because we are a place of memory, and we are a place that honors American service people,” said museum curator Michael Kraus. “So to be able to represent this highest military honor, and for the people to be local, it’s a wonderful thing for us and our community to see.”

The new exhibit was made possible by a financial gift from prominent businessman David Maxwell, owner of the Fox Chapel Yacht Club, Max Marinas, MAXMotive in Cheswick and Max Construction Co. in Saltsburg.

“Before we had these cases, a handful of these medals were not on display because we didn’t have a place to put them, or they were intermixed with other artifacts we have. That’s not appropriate,” said John McCabe, president and CEO of the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum Trust. “We (were) ready to take it to the next level, we just didn’t have the funding.”

The installation cost more than $40,000 and has been about a year in the making.

“I just don’t want any of them forgotten,” Maxwell said. “And I want to do — and the family wants to do — whatever we can to preserve that.”

The Medal of Honor is the U.S. military’s most prestigious award. Recipients must demonstrate “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty” during enemy combat.

‘Glimpse into our future’

Among the new exhibit’s featured recipients: Greensburg native Cpl. John C. Matthews, a member of the 61st Pennsylvania Infantry, was awarded the Medal of Honor for “protecting the colors” by preventing Confederate soldiers from capturing the flags during the Siege of Petersburg, Va., on April 2, 1865.

Although he was severely wounded, Matthews took the colors from a disabled flag bearer and carried the flags “until the enemy’s works were taken,” according to the citation for his Medal of Honor.

Matthews received his award posthumously in 1891. His family members were not able to attend the exhibit’s unveiling.

Other Medal of Honor recipients in the exhibit include Army Pvt. Charles Higby, who died during the Civil War in 1865; Army Sgt. John Kirkwood, who died during the Indian War in 1876; Army Staff Sgt. John Minick, World War II, 1944; Army Technician 5th Grade John Pinder, World War II, 1941; and Marine Staff Sgt. William Shuck, Korean War, 1952.

About 3,500 Medals of Honor have been distributed since the award was implemented in 1863, about 1,500 of which were given to soldiers during the Civil War, according to Kraus.

Museum officials hope to expand upon the exhibit and build more like it to ensure that items such as historic medals and other storied military artifacts do not deteriorate or become lost or forgotten.

“This is a glimpse into our future. … All of our cases, they were built by the county many years ago,” McCabe said. “We have plans, we have prototypes, we are now going to beginning a funding campaign to do almost what you see in the cases you see behind me in these seven small cases similarly in all of the cases out in our halls.”

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