Finally, a new *living* Medal of Honor recipient

[Marnoot]

For the first time since the Vietnam War the Medal of Honor has been awarded to a soldier who was not killed during their heroic action:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/14/living-soldier-awarded-militarys-highest-honor/

I was wondering whether the military or the administration feared having a living hero. Glad to see this.

[wmenorr67]

From someone who has been deployed twice I am glad to see this finally happen.  There are probably a few Silver Stars and/or Bronze Stars that should be upgraded to the Medal.  But at the sametime the way awards are dished out now pisses me off.  There seems to be to me some reverse quota going on that there can only be so many of each award given out.  That is bullshit.  If you earned it you should get it.

[kgbsquirrel]

From someone who has been deployed twice I am glad to see this finally happen.  There are probably a few Silver Stars and/or Bronze Stars that should be upgraded to the Medal.  But at the sametime the way awards are dished out now pisses me off.  There seems to be to me some reverse quota going on that there can only be so many of each award given out.  That is bullshit.  If you earned it you should get it.

Da. It seems like the MOH and the Crosses have been elevated to such a messianic state that it's nigh impossible for anyone to be awarded them. In 2006 a casrep slinked it's way through the S2 shop I was in. Army Specialist in a HMMWV turret had a grenade tossed in through his hatch. His solution? Fall on the grenade and save the other four people in the vehicle. In WW2 throwing yourself on a grenade would more or less be an instant MOH. This Specialist was awarded (posthumously) the Silver Star. *sigh*

In slightly brighter memory, I was lucky enough to meet Jack Lucas twice before he passed away while stationed on the USS Iwo Jima. He would be invited aboard for big to-do's. Mister Lucas received the MOH for his actions on Iwo Jima when he threw himself on two grenades. He was 17 years old. After the war he went home and resumed the 9th grade.

[French G.]

Meanwhile, it looks pretty common for an O-4 and above who does his job passably well while in the sandbox to walk away with a Bronze Star as an end of tour award, things in my mind that should be the service commendation medal or the MSM bs medal.  That holds true of all the branches except for USMC as far as I can tell. Paygrade structure for medals is hilarious. E-6 and under has to damn near die in the Navy to get a Navy Com. Same for E-3 and under getting a NAM. E-7 and above NCMs are like candy.

I have 5 NAMs, all for doing my job, retarded in my mind, but if I don't get those while everyone else is getting them for the same BS then I get raped at the board. Grade inflation meets McHale's navy.

Lt Murphy got the CMH. Did Dietz, Axelson, and Luttrell(living) do less? Is the Navy cross appropriate? I think upgrades are needed.

[taurusowner]

French G is spot on.  There is little to no consistency in the awarding of medals.  People who do things that should warrant a MOH get Bronze or Silver Stars just because the MOH is seen as such an intense award (which it is, it's just that there are a lot of heros out there).  And yet there are routinely officers who are awarded things like Bronze Stars at the end of a deployment just for showing up.  You get 1 and 2 star generals who basically write up their whole staff for high-end awards just because they shuffled paper in the desert for a year instead of shuffling paper in the Pentagon.  Real soldiers who are out in combat doing the job get passed over or ignored for the most petty reasons while Majors and LTCs get patted on the back for essentially nothing.  Scratch that, not even nothing.  Majors and LTCs probably do more to screw up effective combat operations than if they didn't do anything at all.

Writing a Risk Assessment or "Battle Rhythm" Power Point briefing should not be something one gets an award for.

[Leatherneck]

I just finished reading Sebastian Junger's book "War" in which Spc Giunta's action was part of the action in the Korangal Valley. Well-deserved Medal of Honor, I'd say.

TC

[Tallpine]

Writing a Risk Assessment or "Battle Rhythm" Power Point briefing should not be something one gets an award for.

How about a Purple Heart for carpal tunnel ?   

[kgbsquirrel]

How about a Purple Heart for carpal tunnel ?   

Whiskey tango foxtrot, over?


@French 'n' Ragnar: I remember the flak about senior NCO's and officers writing themselves up for meritorious Bronze Stars as end of tour awards and how they were only allowed to write up MSM's for EOTA's circa 2006. Did that wind up only applying for E7's through O3's?

As for the service award disparity, yeah, that was pretty obvious at my last command where we had all the service branches cooped up together. Navy: E1-E3, piss off, and shouldn't you be painting or sweeping something? E4-E6, best to hope for is an Achievement Medal. E7-E9, Commendation Medals are the order of the day. Army: E1-E3, automatic Achievement Medal for deployment EOTA. E4-E6, Commendation Medal. E7-E9, MSM/Bronze. Airforce? They get a row for graduating boot camp.

[Fitz]

My company commander and 1sg when I deployed got bronze stars, and rarely left the wire.

I, however, put a soldier in for an ARCOM with a V device and it was denied. DENIED, because 'he was just doing his job'

Then, a soldier in our unit died of a heart attack. The heart attack was actually a result of weakened atrial walls due to the 15 years of hard drugs he did before the Army.

They gave him a bronze star.

"Hey, Fitz' driver, we're gonna deny your ARCOM/V but we'll give this guy a Bronze for dying due to 15 years of drug abuse."

and people wonder why the military makes me angry

[kgbsquirrel]

Here's a small exercise for the rest of you guys:

You've got SGT Schmuckatelly. He's a REMF (new term would be FOBBIT, he never goes off the firebase) that volunteered to deploy with a unit to which he is not assigned. Upon getting there he's working outside of his MOS as the daytime NCOIC for Collection Manage and Distribution and handles requests for intelligence. His other jobs while there are vetting target packets of which he does about a hundred in 6 months and directing Predator and Shadow UAV's which has resulted in 16 enemy KIA's, 6 of which were high value targets. By the time he leaves country about a third of the target packets he has vetted and sent out have been killed or captured.

The exercise: Disregarding the current trend for End of Tour Awards, would you have put him in for an award, which, and why?

[Fitz]

I would go arcom... mostly because I find it distasteful to give higher awards for people who don't leave the wire.

But he probably would get a Bronze star, hold the V, i'm guessing.

[wmenorr67]

I would say MSM.

My story is first deployment,  not my unit, got an ARCOM and did go out of the wire for other than party pic missions.  My NCOIC an E-6, I'm an E-5, doing the same job I did, got a Bronze Star.  Other guys that were actual squad leaders and went out the wire every day got ARCOM's.  My NCOIC only went out the wire on party pic missions, safe runs.

Second deployment, my unit, put in for the Joint equivilant to an ARCOM, downgraded to the Joint Achievement Medal.  My soldier under me got downgraded to the ARCOM from MSM.  My S-2, OIC received a Bronze Star.  The reason for downgrading was the reverse quota thing.

[grampster]

My dad was a S/sgt WWII.  Co. E, 320th regiment, 35th Infantry.  He didn't ever talk about the war as far as his participation.  Shortly before he died he privately made two tapes starting when he went in till he came out.  I listened to them after he died.  Incredible!

      His company was pinned down by a couple of machine gun nests in a forest.  Dad flanked one of them, fired his rifle into the emplacement and then chucked the pin from his grenade into nest and told them in German to surrender or he'd pitch in the grenade.  They came out, but he had to shoot one of them who tried to get the old man with a pistol.  He took the surrendered Germans and flanked the other machine gun nest and had one of the Germans tell those fellows what was what and the old man was ready to kill them all if they didn't surrender.  Dad spoke German.  They surrendered.  The old man walked the Germans back to his unit and they were sent to the rear accompanied by some other GI's.  I have the local paper's account of his actions in this regard.  He got the Bronze Star.  My brother and I never knew that!!

Later, he was a POW.  His squad was sent to scope a town for his unit to move into.  Army intel said the area was free of Germans.  His squad came under fire from a Panzer outfit's infantry till they ran out of ammo, a couple guys wounded and were overrun and captured.

I gotta get those tapes on a dvd.  What he had to say about his experiences was just incredible.  

[Northwoods]

My maternal grandfather never spoke to anyone, that I know of, about his experiences in WWII.  What I do know is that he started out in the Pidgeon Corps.  Later the Signal Corps.  We don't know the extent of his involvement, but we do know that his unit was in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge.  I'll have to ask my mom if any of the records they found after he'd passed and my grandmother was moved into assisted living contain any medals of significance.

My parternal grandfather got a draft exemption due to his work as a research chemist for DuPont.

[Perd Hapley]

My dad was a S/sgt WWII.  Co. E, 320th regiment, 35th Infantry.  He didn't ever talk about the war as far as his participation.  Shortly before he died he privately made two tapes starting when he went in till he came out.  I listened to them after he died.  Incredible!

Incredible is one word for it.    Can you put them up on YouTube, or something, and just put his picture in the background?

My paternal Grandpa was a Mennonite conscientious objector in the CCC (I think). The other one served in some capacity; no idea which. Most of the men on my mother's side served in the Natl. Guard, including service in 'Nam and SomewhereInLatinAmericaIdon'tKnow.

[BridgeRunner]

He's been gone over a decade now, by a few days.  Still miss him like it was yesterday, as does all my family.  Was gonna post this on the 9th, but the screen kept getting blurry on me for some reason.