Visitors to the Oregon Capitol in Salem may take a minute or two to linger at symmetrical rings of waist-high pillars that surround flagpoles on each side of the main entrance.

These make up Oregon's Medal of Honor Memorial, which memorializes Oregon's military members who were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, given to those who showed exceptional gallantry in battle.

Thirteen of the 14 pillars display plaques carrying the names and brief descriptions of 13 veterans from Oregon who were awarded the Medal of Honor. The 14th pillar lists others with Oregon connections who won the award, but were deemed by the service branches to belong to other states. These include people, for example, who were born in the state, but entered the service elsewhere, or people from other states who are buried in Oregon.

The memorial was dedicated in September 2004 in a stirring ceremony that featured two living Medal of Honor awardees and a flyover by a pair of Oregon Air Guard F-15s, according to an account in the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs newsletter.

But at least two military veterans seem to be missing from the 14th pillar.

Thomas O'Keefe, a longtime activist -- you may remember him as instigator of the United Community Action Network's yellow-bike program of 1994 -- has found two Medal of Honor winners who are buried in Oregon, but aren't listed on any of the pillars at the Capitol. That assertion troubles Frank Brawner, the retired bank lobbyist and former chair of the Oregon State Capitol Foundation.

"I can't believe we missed anybody," Brawner said. "I can't tell you how many hours we spent making sure we didn't miss anybody."

Brawner said the process of selecting names for the Medal of Honor Memorial belonged to the military branches, which determined which state could claim which of the 3,461 awardees. "This was not a selection made in Oregon," he said. He said the now-disbanded commission asked the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the names of Oregonians awarded the Medal of Honor, then checked with each military branch. It also involved the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs.

Nevertheless, it appears that the veterans agencies and military branches missed two people who seem to warrant inclusion on the 14th pillar. These are John Alphonsus Murphy, buried in Northeast Portland, and Nicholas Maher, who served under the name of Nicholas Meaher, buried in Jordan Valley Cemetery near the Idaho border in southeastern Oregon. Murphy served in the Boxer Rebellion and Maher served in what were called "The Indian Wars."

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In Northeast Portland's Rose City Cemetery lies a stone that reads "John A. Murphy, Oregon, Sgt. Drummer, U.S. Marine Corps, November 29, 1935."

We don't know much about him, except that he was born in New York in 1881, entered the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., held the rank of drummer, served in China during the Boxer Rebellion and died Nov. 29, 1935.

His Congressional Medal of Honor citation says simply, "In the presence of the enemy during the action at Peking, China, 21 July to 17 August 1900, Murphy distinguished himself by meritorious conduct."

Rose City Cemetery has virtually no record of him. It has a wispy signature in a ledger for the burial permit that appears to read something like "Mrs. A. Crowe," according to a cemetery administrator.

His death certificate from the Oregon State Archives says he was single and lived at 1413 S.E. Madison St. in Portland. The informant for the death certificate is Abbie Crowe, whose address is listed at 1305 S.E. Madison St. The doctor who signed the certificate attested that the cause of death was coronary thrombosis.

An eight-line death notice in The Oregonian noted that funeral arrangements would be handled by Edward Holman & Son of Southeast Portland. The newspaper also published a "card of thanks" from Mrs. Abbie Crowe and family, expressing gratitude for flowers to "the many friends of John A. Murphy."

Unmentioned in any of these brief records is Murphy's military history, much less an explanation of how a Marine drummer showed such meritorious conduct in China to warrant receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Boxer Rebellion was an uprising by a secret society of peasants calling themselves "Righteous and Harmonious Fists," but known widely as "Boxers." In their quest to rid China of foreign influence, in 1900 they massacred Christians and fought battles with foreigners. A force of American, British, Russian, French, Italian and Japanese soldiers were dispatched to protect foreign interests and put down the rebellion, which they did in the summer of 1900.

Somewhere amid the executions of foreign ministers, the explosions of mines and the burning of buildings, Marine drummer John A. Murphy served well enough to win the respect of his comrades -- and the medal representing the thanks of a nation.

Nicholas Meaher was an Army Cavalry corporal awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action in Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains in 1869. He died in Idaho in 1916.

But Murphy and Maher are not listed on the Medal of Honor Memorial in Salem.

O'Keefe, the retired activist and researcher has spent hours poring over the names of Medal of Honor awardees and comparing them to the names on the memorial.

"I like looking up names," said O'Keefe. "It's just one of my things."

He has made it a hobby to buy old family Bibles at vintage shops and yard sales and mail them to descendants he can find. While he has concerns about names he believes are missing or miscategorized on the Medal of Honor Memorial in Salem, he said, "I wouldn't doubt I missed some, too."

Brawner, of the State Capitol Foundation, takes pride in the work that went into creating the memorial.

"We're very proud of our Medal of Honor awards," he said. "We were ahead of most states."

He said he was distressed to know that two people who warranted inclusion in the memorial were not named. And he said he's not sure how to correct the oversight.

"I hope everybody understands we did the best the job we could with the information we had."