Something Worth Defending

MEDAL OF HONOR (Army)	MEDAL OF HONOR (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard)	MEDAL OF HONOR (Air Force)

From 1863 to 2000, the Medal Of Honor has been awarded to 3,432 persons, most of them posthumously. Awarded for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual conflict with an opposing armed force. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration the nation can bestow.

Too few Medals of Honor awarded The last time the Medal of Honor was presented to a living recipient was on Feb. 27, 2007, when it was awarded to former Army Major Bruce P. Crandall for heroism during the Vietnam War in 1965. Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., R-Calif., himself a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, believes there have been too few Medals of Honor awarded in the years since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks and then Iraq. In June, he successfully pushed an amendment through the House Armed Services Committee that directed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to review the process for Medal of Honor awards. Hunter pointed out that Marine Corps Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who sacrificed his own life to save others when he suppressed a grenade blast with his own body, was nominated for the Medal of Honor only to have the award downgraded to the Navy Cross after the nomination was reviewed by a panel made up of two pathologists and a neurosurgeon. The kind of bravery demonstrated by Peralta was nearly identical to that shown by Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis, a gunner who saved his buddies by diving on a grenade dropped into their tank in 2004. McGinnis was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on June 5, 2008. According to Hunter, his letter resulted in one back from Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gail McGinn, who suggested that so few Medals of Honor have been awarded because the nature of warfare has changed. McGinn, Hunter said in his June 17 statement, said precision-guided and “stand-off” weapons enable troops to kill the enemy from a distance, so that fewer U.S. troops engage in the kind of combat seen in previous wars. Hunter acknowledged that technology has changed some things, but not “the close-quarter combat that is required to take ground from the enemy … Those actions are no different today than they were at any other time before. "The lack of Medal of Honor awards in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he wrote, “suggest that either troops are not as brave as they used to be, which I don't believe is true, or someone has to die in order to receive this honor. And even then, particularly in the case of Sergeant Peralta, the process for determining award winners appears to be inconsistent." But Fred Borch, a retired Army colonel and expert in military awards and decorations, said the changing nature of war has played a role, yet suggested other reasons as well why so few Medals of Honor are awarded today. The number of instances in which U.S. forces go toe-to-toe with the enemy in sustained combat are far fewer than in prior wars, he said, so that the likelihood of anyone holding off hundreds of enemy as Audie Murphy did in World War II is unlikely. The enemy does not want to face U.S. forces in this way, which is why 75 percent of American casualties are attributed to IEDs. But the proliferation of valor awards is also behind the shrinking number of Medals of Honor. According to the Medal of Honor Society, 119 troops were awarded the Medal of Honor for World War I actions between 1918 and 1919. Of the 3,448 Medals of Honor awarded to date, nearly half – 1,523 – were awarded to Union troops during the Civil War, according to the Medal of Honor Society. And during a two-day campaign between Marines and Sailors and Koreans in 1871, 15 Medals of Honor were awarded, according to the society. “The Medal of Honor in 1870 is almost meaningless, because it’s only been around since the Civil War and doesn’t have anywhere near the prestige it has today. If you said to a Soldier back then you can have the Medal of Honor or a hundred bucks, he’d say give me a hundred bucks. Only today we have this prestige attached to the medal.” Borch said one has to be careful though about making comparisons to other wars, partly because with World War II there was “an explosion of the kinds of medals you can get for combat heroism.” And that has meant the prestige of the Medal of Honor went up. Borch said he would not quarrel with the idea that some troops have performed actions for which the Medal of Honor is appropriate but have been denied. And the denial may also be owed to the increased prestige of the medal.

Nineteen men have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice. Five of these men were awarded both the Army and Navy Medal of Honor for the same action. Since February 1919, no single individual can be awarded more than one Medal of Honor for the same action although a member of one branch of the armed forces can receive the Medal of Honor from another branch, if the actions for which awarded were under the authority of the said branch. The maximum number of Medals of Honor earned by any service member has been two. There has never been a recorded case of a service member receiving three or more Medals of Honor.

We can never emphasize enough the fact that people have made tremendous sacrifices over the last 200 years and more. I saw a lot of casualties and wounded in Vietnam, and not a day goes by that I don't think of them. - Robert Modrzejewski a Vietnam veteran

James B. Stockdale, the navy aviator, spent nearly eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after being shot down in 1965. Because he led the prisoners' resistance to interrogation and their refusal to take part in propaganda exploitation, he repeatedly was confined to solitary, beaten and tortured. Finally, in an effort to kill himself and thereby underscore to the foe his refusal to capitulate, Stockdale gouged his wrists with shards of glass.

By the time he made it home from Vietnam, Stockdale wrote 20 years ago, "freedom had long since ceased to be an abstraction for me." The Declaration of Independence had even greater meaning for him. It "remains one of the most stirring documents in history," he wrote. "No one had to remind our Founding Fathers of the cost," he added. "Fifty-six of them knowingly laid their lives, liberty and honor on the line when they signed that Declaration. And they paid their dues. In the ensuing war, nine were killed in action, five died as prisoners of war, 12 had homes burned, several lost sons, one man's wife died in prison, and 16 went broke. The legacy of these men was summed up very simply by Thomas Paine: 'Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.' The nation has come a long way since then," wrote Stockdale, "and the milestones are littered with human sacrifice."

More than a million Americans have been killed in battle since the Revolution. Stockdale, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam, is an American whose words have a special resonance because of what he went through.

Hiroshi Miyamura, whose feats of bravery in Korea are astounding, is married to a Japanese-American who spent three years with her family in an internment camp during World War II before she met Miyamura. But, he said recently, "I never resented anything. I was in no position to say if they were wrong or right [about interning Japanese-Americans]. We all felt we were Americans. That was the way we were brought up."

For Hiroshi Miyamura, it starts with the flag. "It is important to teach our children-and for everyone-to respect that flag," he said. "You don't have to agree with everything our government does, but you should show respect for the flag, because it represents our American way of life and all those who died fighting for it."

Vernon Baker, resented the discrimination he was subjected to, but he laid his life on the line many times in Italy during World War II. Asked why, Baker replied: "This was the only country I had. I knew things would get better. I just felt it in my heart. We've come a long way. We've got a little ways to go, but we're going to get there. I mean, look at Gen. Colin Powell."

William Barber, as a Marine lieutenant in World War II, Barber witnessed one of the most famous moments in U.S. history-the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945. Barber, who received the Silver Star for valor on Iwo and would later earn the Medal of Honor for his service in Korea, recalled the moment when American soldiers planted the flag on the summit of Mount Suribachi: "Somebody said, 'There's the flag.' We looked back and saw it. There is no way to describe what it meant to us." Sixty-one hundred Americans and 22,000 Japanese were killed in the 36-day battle for Iwo.

Harvey Barnum Jr. thinks it is vital for adults to familiarize young people with the great documents and literature of our history, such as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution and Thomas Paine's pamphlets. Another way to bring the past to life for young persons is to take them to Civil War battlefields, such as Shiloh or Gettysburg. "We need to pause and reflect and give thanks," he added.

As Barnum put it: "It's a reminder of what our country is, how it started, where it's been and where we're going. I always tell people the last gesture of a grateful nation is that we drape the warrior in the flag as he is carried to his resting place," said Barnum, a Vietnam veteran. "What greater honor can a country confer? So people should pause whenever they see our flag and think about what it stands for."

Like so many of us, these men will gather with their families or friends for reunions on the 4th. "I tell people to go ahead and have a good time but to take the time to pause and reflect and rededicate themselves to something," Barnum added. "And when they hear those fireworks go off, just remember they're friendly because a lot of us sat under them as incoming artillery fire and lost our lives."

Larry Smith. PARADE Magazine. July 2, 2000.

Medal of Honor: Profiles of America's Military Heroes from the Civil War to the Present The Congressional Medal of Honor, established during the Civil War, pays tribute to a person who has "distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." Washington Literacy Council board member Mikaelian spotlights 11 of the 3,456 soldiers who have received this legendary honor, while 60 Minutes' Wallace supplies historical context with his introduction and brief, general commentaries on various U.S. wars. The book's lively vignettes not only describe the battles faced by the men (and one woman), but also trace the ways the Medal affected their later lives. The book profiles Hiroshi Miyamura, a Korean War marine who fought back Chinese soldiers when he and fellow troops were isolated in a mountain pass on the Chinese-Korean border; as well as Dwight Johnson, a celebrated Vietnam vet deeply conflicted about his role in the war and especially about his recruitment of fellow young black men into the armed services. The practice of Mary Edwards Walker, a Civil War doctor who is the only woman to have won the Medal, fell into controversy after the war, leading the government to revoke her Medal toward the end of her life when she was an isolated eccentric and, literally, a sideshow curiosity. This absorbing set of accounts should appeal to military history enthusiasts and anyone interested in the heroic exploits of ordinary Americans.

---

top of page

back a page