WASHINGTON – Two Orange County men were honored this morning at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., for their acts of bravery and sacrifice.

Both men were recognized in a ceremony to commemorate National Medal of Honor Day. The event was held against a backdrop of monuments to individual bravery and sacrifice at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

One of the men was honored for single-handedly taking out a German machine-gun nest during World War II, the other for building inexpensive wheelchairs and distributing them to disabled people throughout the Third World.

Buena Park resident Walter D. Ehlers was among the 34 Medal of Honor recipients who attended the ceremony to bestow Above & Beyond Citizen Honors upon three citizens.

The citizens’ medal, presented by Gen. Colin Powell on behalf of the 105 living Medal of Honor recipients, is bestowed on those citizens "who display the same courage, sacrifice, integrity, patriotism and commitment of citizenship associated with the medal."

While only three citizens were honored, "We have hundreds of citizens who display these traits every day," Powell said.

Don Schoendorfer, of Santa Ana, received the Above & Beyond award because he developed a one-size-fits-all wheelchair that is made, in part, out of a lawn chair. Through his charity, the Free Wheelchair Mission, he has distributed more than 250,000 of them to people in more than 70 countries.

He never thought his work would earn him such an honor when he got the idea in 1977 as a tourist in Morocco. Standing there, watching a disabled woman dig her fingernails into the dirt road to pull herself across the street, Schoendorfer thought mostly with his guts.

"I didn’t think much more than a few days ahead," he said.

Ehlers also wasn’t thinking very far ahead when he carried a wounded soldier out of danger more than 60 years ago, either. Ehlers knocked out a machine-gun crew during the 1944 D-Day invasion. During the fight, he was shot by a sniper, but managed to carry a wounded rifleman to safety before returning to the fight.

"I was just thinking about what I was supposed to be doing," Ehlers said and then laughed as he added, "I wasn’t thinking or I probably wouldn’t have done a lot of the things I did."

Congress passed a resolution in 2007 to designate March 25 as National Medal of Honor Day in honor of the day the medal was first awarded in 1863. Ehlers said he and his fellow recipients were pleased with the recognition.

"We don't expect it, but they keep doing it," Ehlers said.

"Of all the medals in the United States, it's probably the highest recognized one, because we’ve been to inaugurations and all of that," Ehlers said. "I've shook hands with every president since Harry Truman. Not many people can say that."