From wire and YachatsNews reports
U.S. Highway 20, the nation’s longest road whose western end is in Newport, will be designated the “National Medal of Honor Highway” under legislation approved this week by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The western terminus of the 3,365 mile road is in Newport at its junction with U.S. Highway 101 and its eastern end is in Boston at a junction with Massachusetts Route 2. The Oregon portion of the highway spans 451 miles from Newport to Nyssa on the Idaho border.
The bipartisan legislation was approved Monday in a non-controversial voice vote. The Senate’s bill was introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho and passed the Senate in last December. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Legislatures and governors in all 12 states along Highway 20 designated their state Medal of Honor Highways covering all of the 3,365-mile Medal of Honor Highway across America. The 12 states account for about 62 percent of all 3,516 Medal of Honor awards presented since the Civil War.
The legislation is supported by the Bend Heroes Foundation, Military Officers Association of America, American Legion, Legion of Valor, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, and the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States.
According to Veterans of Foreign Wars, the drive to rename Highway 20 started with an Oregon Vietnam veteran named Dick Tobiason, who heads the Bend Heroes Foundation. In 2017, Oregon’s governor and legislature designated their section of the road the “Oregon Medal of Honor Highway.”
A statement from Tobiason said that having a transcontinental National Medal of Honor Highway would be “a permanent tribute to America’s members of the Armed Forces who acted with conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, above and beyond the call of duty at the risk of their lives during combat with an enemy of the United States.”
On Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. applauded the U.S. House passage.
“I’m gratified our country’s longest continuous highway, stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, will be designated as the ‘National Medal of Honor Highway,’ standing as a timeless tribute to the heroes of Oregon and America who helped make this grassroots movement a reality,” Wyden said in a statement.
