by David French
This weekend’s New York Times Sunday Magazine contains a fascinating article that hits quite close to home for me. Centered around the story of a 25-year-old Marine who — despite horrific wounds — had the presence of mind and courage to scoop a live grenade under his body to save the lives of his comrades, the article asks a simple question: Why is the military awarding so few medals of honor? Are we less courageous now? Or is the military stifling valor awards in a labyrinthine bureaucracy dominated by rear echelon second-guessers? The numbers are stunning:
Despite its symbolic importance and educational role in military culture, the Medal of Honor has been awarded only six times for service in Iraq or Afghanistan. By contrast, 464 Medals of Honor were awarded for service during World War II, 133 during the Korean War and 246 during the Vietnam War. “From World War I through Vietnam,” The Army Times claimed in April 2009, “the rate of Medal of Honor recipients per 100,000 service members stayed between 2.3 (Korea) and 2.9 (World War II). But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, only five Medals of Honor have been awarded, a rate of 0.1 per 100,000 — one in a million.”
To be clear, this article hits home for me not because I did anything meriting a valor award in Iraq (I did not), but because I know and served with men who did deserve valor awards but either (i) did not receive them; or (ii) saw the award requests downgraded or denied several steps up the bureaucratic chain. In some cases, we knew conduct would never be considered for more than a Silver Star, so we didn’t make the request.
The men I served with were courageous at a level that civilians simply cannot comprehend. Let me give just one example. In January 2008, a small team of American soldiers was ambushed after an al-Qaeda terrorist faked a surrender (this was common practice). The team leader and another officer were mortally wounded the instant the terrorists opened fire. The senior noncommissioned officer was pinned down and unable to take effective control of the formation; other officers were worked desperately to retrieve their fallen comrades. A Sergeant First Class took immediate control of the situation, personally returning fire and killing the majority of the attackers, directing the team’s defense, and coordinating the recovery under fire of his stricken team members. He shepherded the formation out of the kill zone and coordinated the medical evacuation.
All in a day’s work, you say? How about this additional fact: He did all of this after being shot in the neck in the opening moments of the ambush. He killed the enemy, protected his comrades, and led them to safety while bleeding profusely — collapsing only after help arrived. I’m not sure about you, but I can’t even imagine what I’d do in a similar circumstance.
This courageous soldier received a Silver Star — our third-highest award for valor. It’s a medal he’ll wear proudly for the rest of his life, and he never asked for more. But did he deserve more?
To be clear, our guys aren’t out there begging for medals, but these awards are a critical aspect of the ongoing story of our military and the valor of our soldiers. How can the public recognize the heroes in our midst if they will never know who they are? If their courage goes unrecognized or is unfairly minimized?
I think that there are a lot of instances were men deserve the Medal of Honor for efforts beyond the call of duty but they are passed over for political reasons due to the politically correct attitudes of Washington. You can’t have too many heros in the military now can you? It wouldn’t look good on Obamas resume
You are right my friend. Think about it the average federal employee makes twice as his counterpart in the private sector. Contrast with the military, We need a whole lot of surgery to kill many government programs. Most don’t work, have the opposite effect intended and should receive the exact treatment as Islam with the exception that final resting place will not be with pigs but politicians that brought this cancer upon us. J.C.
This conjours up so many ill thoughts in my mind, I cannot put a rational thought together to resemble anything that is logic. This should NOT be happening; very, very disturbing that it is. There are still legions of American Patriots in this country WHO HONOR OUR SERVICE PERSONNEL IN OUR HEARTS and are DEEPLY APPRECIATIVE, and AWARE of the sacrifice they make whenever they are called upon to defend what is left of Freedom! US gov’t has become the bloated pig and is about to implode. How DARE some bureaucrat DENY Medal of Honor awards to those deserving! This is but a foreshadowing of a much bigger problem….. is what happens when bureaucrats are put in charge of anything…quality of what they represent is tossed out the window.
Oh, come on.
If we’re going to be handing out these
new yellow chickenshit “combat” medals
honoring “courageous restraint”,
it stands to reason you’ve got to eliminate
traditional REAL value medals.
Obama simply must eviscerate anything
that gives honor to a real, selfless patriot.
This is reflective of everybody getting a trophy
during Little League season, regardless of how
abysmal the performance.
It’s also akin to the abolishment of
recognizing the high school
valedictorian & salutatorian at graduation
exercises. My small midwestern high school
now just recognizes the Top Ten Per Cent of the
Class. Supposedly, that won’t give honor to
just one or two individuals—or so the theory
goes. I say the bottom 90% should file suit
as being shamed by recognition of the top 10%.
After all, they have to suffer the ignominy of
staying seated while the Top Ten rises!!
What hath Political Correctness wrought??
The trouble lies in the very nature of bureaucracies. When they become too big and cumbersome they cease to function with any degree of efficiency and become merely self contained systems that have lost all connection with their originally supposed purpose and dedicated solely to self perpetuation regardless of consequence. The Roman Catholic Church is a good example. The Church was originally meant to serve the people but when it became involved with Rome and became contaminated with the Roman will to power it ceased to function for any benefit of the people.
JC,… I commend you for attracting some of the most intelligent people out there.
You recently mentioned you have only 3 functioning brain cells left, I have only 2.
Your blog is always a good read.
Thanks for your service to our country my friend, and my advice to you is to wear a helmet while poking the dark side of journalism.
On the other hand,… go getum’ dude.
Thanks my friend, sadly nobody commented on my offer to grow Mary Jane hydroponically. So thinking that we “didn’t ever grow up” at the same time, the seeds are germinating . I just Glow Girl will be all over it as we all sing “One toke over the line Sweet Jesus” LOL….P.S. Always armed and deadly. To the cowardly towel heads and rag heads among you that just flew in from Mecca on your rugs, bring it on! LOL
YAY JC. Allah hu snack bar or yuck bar. Take your pick or invent your own just as long as you follow Sharia HE-HE- HE
Actially I fear Islam not for what it is but for what it aspires to be and do. Islam is little more than a triumphalist cult which, by the nature of the beast, cannot tolerate criticism.