[centurion316]

The Medal of Honor is highly valued because the standards for an award are very high. Many have said that the services, especially the Army, have set the standards too high for the current wars and have injected Pentagon bureaucrats, politicians, and lawyers who have never heard a shot fired in anger into the process.

I think that the awards system is seriously out of whack and this is yet more evidence. By design, more Distinguished Service Crosses are awarded than Medals of Honor. You have to draw a line somewhere and the distinction is a very fine one. The Distinguished Service Cross requires a very high degree of valor, it is not some consolation prize.

We have done this twice before, for Blacks and for Japanese Americans. Now we are doing it again. The claim that these soldiers were slighted because of their race strikes me as questionable. Perhaps in some cases in World War II, many a few cases in Korea, I doubt that had much of an effect in Vietnam. A much more important factor is the unit. Some units made more awards and recommendations than did others. Some divisions were known as stingy, others passed them out more freely.

Some political weenie reading documents 40-70 years after the facts is not going to come up with a better result, unless the goal is to make political points. This debases the Medal of Honor.

[SkyPilot]

This debases the Medal of Honor.

It does.

The very fact that the news release from the White House and the Pentagon mentions that the review was raced based means that this entire action was driven by ugly racial politics.

No one want to diminish the service of any veteran, but let's take this in context.

Anyone know who this is?

That is Major Dick Winters, 101st Airborne, of "Band of Brother" fame.

He was portrayed in the Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg produced HBO series by actor Damian Lewis.

Major Winters passed away recently (Jan 2, 2011).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Winters

Maj Winters led an assault on several German artillery emplacements that were firing upon our troops on Omaha beach. He led an attack requiring almost unbelievable heroism and bravery.

http://www.majordickwinters.com/

He should have been awarded the Medal of Honor, and even his commanders at the time acknowledged that fact.

But because there were Army policies that limited MOH citations (no more than XX from the same units), he was denied.

For many years, friends and supporters of Maj Winters attempted to get his citation upgraded to the Medal of Honor. It was met by fierce resistance and absolute silence by Washington and the Dept of Defense.

Suddenly, one day, the White House and DoD announce dozens of new MOH recipients, and cite race and discrimination as the main factor in pushing them forward.

I am sorry, but this is wrong. Period.

If Major Winters was not deserving of the upgrade in his citation to the MOH, then none of these others should have been pushed through.