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Football game to honor military set for Sept. 17 at Grenada High The Holmes Community College Football Team has moved their Sept. 17 non-division contest with East Central Community College to Grenada High School at 7 p.m. and will be honoring current and former military members with a Military Appreciation Game.
Veterans and active service men and women will be recognized by their military branches during halftime of the game and will be admitted free to the game with their military ID. Area high school students with a school ID, school shirt or team jersey will be admitted free. Holmes students will be admitted free with their Holmes ID.
Tickets to the game are $7 and can be purchased at the gate.
Proceeds from the Military Appreciation Game will be used to help endow the Milton Olive Scholarship through the Holmes Community College Development Foundation, Inc. Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 527, Goodman, MS 39079 and are tax deductible.
Olive, originally from Chicago and later moved to Holmes County, was the first African American to receive a Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War. The men of Company B's 3rd Platoon considered their Oct. 22, 1965, patrol near Phu Cuong routine. As they moved through jungle brush, they tried to spot Viet Cong operating in the area. At different times, they were under varying degrees of enemy fire, sometimes pinned down temporarily. Olive, by all accounts a good-humored, hardworking soldier, was constantly up front, exposing himself to enemy fire.
Olive and four others, including his platoon commander, were quietly and steadily pursuing one band of Viet Cong through the tangled growth. Suddenly, one of the enemy turned and threw a hand grenade into the middle of the platoon. Olive dashed forward and grabbed the grenade. Yelling "I've got it," he tucked it into his middle and moved away from the others, falling on the grenade and absorbing the full blast.
In 1979, the city of Chicago recognized Olive by naming Olive Park on Lake Michigan in his honor. Olive-Harvey College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, is named after both Olive and fellow Medal of Honor recipient Carmel B. Harvey. The Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wyandanch, Long Island, New York, is also named in his honor. In 2007, a State Historical Marker was erected for Olive in Lexington. The dedication ceremonies included an address by the Adjutant General of the Mississippi National Guard. Fort Campbell has a recreation facility named in his honor.
