President Obama to Award Medal of Honor

The White House ^ | September 9, 2010 | Office of the Press Secretary

[centurion316]

Announcement today of the award of the Medal of Honor, unfortunately yet another posthumous award. Apparently, the Distinguished Service Cross is for the living, but the MoH is reserved for those who paid the ultimate price

[Poison Pill]

Deepest respects to this man and his family.

We also need to be awarding this to soldiers who survive.

[naturalized]

http://northshorejournal.org/army-staff-sgt-robert-james-miller

[rarestia]

This is abhorrent. FUBO!

If this soldier was alive, I’d hope he’d pull a John “I was in Vietnam” Kerry and throw the medals on to the WH front lawn.

This man paid the price for Obama’s idiocy.

[bgill]

Thank you to him and all those who protect us and America.

However, you know it will disgust the muslim Hussein.

[Cicero]

God bless him. I hate to see this pass through the hands of Obama, but his filthy fingers can’t really tarnish this medal.

[llevrok]

Our service members - ordinary people doing extra ordinary things. Daily.

[Mr. Lucky]

Mr. Obama wasn’t the President in January of 2008, you know.

[Billthedrill]

I've met at least one person wearing the MoH, and he's still very much alive.

Right you are - this is an Old List but it will give us an idea of how many MoH recipients are still alive.

[Noamie]

God bless him.

However, if I were his parents, I would hold a press conference to announce that we will wait for another President to come along before we accept.

[dpa5923]

This young man was only 2 when I joined the Corps. They sure make heroes young nowadays.

God bless this young man and grant him eternal peace.

[Michael.SF.]

Distinguished Service Cross is for the living, but the MoH is reserved for those who paid the ultimate price

The pic is a little old (2001)and I am sure some of these fine men are no longer with us, but in 2001, there were 50 MOH winners who were very much alive:

[Lazlo in PA]

I am surprised Obummer is not awarding this to himself. He’s earned it. Right?

[centurion316]

My point was that there have been no awards of the Medal of Honor to living soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines since the Vietnam War. They have all be awarded posthumously, and many have raised questions about why that might be so.

[centurion316]

I have several friends who are recipients of the Medal of Honor, but they received their awards during the Vietnam War. No living service member has received the MoH since Vietnam except for retroactive awards. Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan: all posthumous.

[ken in texas]

Thanks for the follow-up.

In case you’re curious, I asked the Mods to remove my previous posts. Even after “proofreading” my first, I spotted an error after it went out. I posted a correction of sorts, and then requested that they be deleted.

Bill — You’re quite correct, there are many living recipients of the MoH.

Centurion — you may also be correct with regards to the more recent recipients. I haven’t checked that info lately.

In any event, the citizens of this country should regard them all with the highest esteem, whether living or dead. They performed heroic actions very few of us can imagine.

[dfwgator]

For a second there I thought it said, “Obama Wins Medal of Honor.”

Well it wouldn’t be that much crazier than him winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Billthedrill]

Yes, and centurion's got a point - MoH's have been very sparse of late and it isn't as if there's any less valor running around. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that, actually.

I just finished a memoir of Fallujah entitled House to House. Sometimes you just sit there with your mouth open reading that sort of thing. Highly recommended.