[Infowarrior] - OT: Leave the Medal of Honor Alone

[Richard Forno]

Leave the Medal of Honor Alone
By Ed Hooper
Thursday, October 1, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093004204_pf.html
On Sept. 17 President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to the  
parents of Army Staff Sgt. Jared C. Monti for "conspicuous gallantry."  
Monti, 30, was serving with the 10th Mountain Division when he was  
killed June 21, 2006, in a battle at Gowardesh, Afghanistan.

This was the sixth occasion since Sept. 11, 2001, that the nation's  
highest military award has been bestowed. Unfortunately, some are  
pushing for this decoration to be awarded more generously because they  
believe the number of recipients is too low.

More than a dozen groups and lawmakers are lobbying the Defense  
Department to award this honor more frequently -- in effect, to lower  
its standards -- and to upgrade to the Medal of Honor other  
decorations that soldiers have received. In debate over the National  
Defense Authorization Act for 2010, the Pentagon was criticized for  
setting decoration standards too high. The "low numbers" led Rep.  
Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to insert a conference report in the  
authorization act "to review the current trends in awarding the Medal  
of Honor to identify whether there is an inadvertent subjective bias  
amongst commanders that has contributed to the low numbers of awards  
of the Medal of Honor." It directs Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates  
to report back to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees next  
March.

The Defense Department's definition of "hero" has stood the test of  
time. And the standards for this nation's highest military award are  
appropriately strict.

The Medal of Honor is the least-understood U.S. military decoration.  
In 1916, a committee under the leadership of a medal recipient, Gen.  
Nelson Miles, reviewed each instance of award, set up investigative  
standards and rules, and strengthened the requirements (including  
specifying that recipients must be actively enrolled in U.S. armed  
forces at the time of their act of bravery). The "Purge of 1917"  
stripped 911 Medals of Honor from those not deemed worthy of having  
received them; the most well known of these are 864 awarded during the  
Civil War to the soldiers of the 27th Maine, who received the medal  
simply for reenlisting. Sadly, amid political pressure, some of the  
medals taken away were later returned.

The Medal of Honor is presented ceremoniously by the president of the  
United States in the name of Congress, but the Defense Department  
chooses the candidates. The department has historically based its  
decisions on soldiers' actions and merit. Most of those calling for  
the medal to be bestowed more frequently couldn't name any of the 95  
recipients who are still living or the remarkable actions that led to  
their awards.

The Medal of Honor is a combat decoration not limited to a past battle  
or present circumstances; it is also about how succeeding generations  
will view the individuals on whom it was bestowed and why. Most Medals  
of Honor have been posthumously awarded, and the citations justifying  
its presentation are Homeric stories of bravery that centuries from  
now are likely to stand unrivaled beside the stories of great warriors  
and citizen-soldiers throughout history.

The uniformed men and women of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard,  
Marines and Navy will tell you that the Medal of Honor is a warrior's  
award and that it is their decoration to present only to those whom  
they regard as fit to wear it. Politicians, pundits and civilian  
organizations -- however well-meaning -- should have little say in who  
receives it.

Nor is our Defense Department unique in bestowing its highest combat  
decoration sparingly. More than 50,000 British troops have served in  
Iraq and Afghanistan, and 360 have been killed in combat. The British  
Secretary of State for Defence, however, has awarded only two of that  
nation's highest decoration, the Victoria Cross, for actions under  
fire. The United States has fielded three times as many troops and  
awarded three times the number of our highest decoration since Sept.  
11, 2001.

Yet this honor is not about quotas or statistics; nor does the number  
of presentations reflect on the modern soldier's valiant service on  
the battlefield. The Bronze Star, the Silver Star and the  
Distinguished Service Cross are prestigious decorations of valor, not  
to be taken lightly or dismissed.

The strict standards for the Medal of Honor are meant to keep it  
credible. It is wrong to pressure the Defense Department to lower its  
standards of individual courage, nobility and self-sacrifice on a  
battlefield. The department should make its own decisions on this  
award so Americans will know that when it lauds someone as a "hero,"  
we should all take notice.

Ed Hooper is an author and journalist from Knoxville, Tenn., who has  
reported on military affairs and assembled educational programs on the  
Medal of Honor. A version of this column was distributed by History  
News Service.