rltipton wrote
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I had to get my ass ripped by the chain of command for it. They deserved a hell of a lot more than what they got and our own chain of command who freely gave BSMs to mechanics and cooks in Khandahar got pissed off about it.
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I guess I don’t understand why you got your ass ripped. Was it because you did not settle for the ARCOMs?
Richard wrote
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one man's hero is another's idea of someone just performing IAW his duty description.
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I’m also having a hard time getting head around this one. If your MOS designation is 18 something or 11B, does that mean heroic acts should be overlooked or ignored? I guess it’s similar to the folks who fought in El Salvador. They were involved in some clandestine operations so they do not receive CIB’s. Well maybe that’s just part of the job description. However, there is a practical side also. How does not receiving a CIB or a deserving medal affect the chances of promotion when competing against the REMF’s, cooks and mechanics who have received medals for similar or less heroic deeds? What about the way we offer thanks and respect to the folks who are in the hero business?
Rltipton stated that the system is borked. Is it borked because it’s just one of those things that is allowed to happen in a big organization? Is it borked because the reigning powers that be don’t want to recognized heroes? If it’s the former, then it needs to be fixed. If it’s the latter, then it’s another reason why the dems and liberals need to be thrown out of office.
However I think maybe there is a third reason. One that is harder to express. If we present medals to deserving folks involved in the current conflict, have we failed ultimately by comparison to adequately honor those in the past whose deeds may be more pronounced, yet they went virtually unnoticed. For example, the SOG folks.
In my way of thinking, just getting on a Huey to be dropped behind enemy lines into Laos in itself warranted commendation. Forget what happened after they were there. The SOG stories are just the ones I know about from Plaster’s book. I’m sure there are untold stories where deserving folks went unrecognized.
I do not believe the SOG generation did their deeds because they thought they would receive medals. I don’t believe the El Salvador folks did what they did for medals either. However, if we have failed to adequately honor them, we have failed, not them. Does it justify falling short of our duty now?
I guess why someone does something is really not the issue. The threshold issue is,” Did they perform an unusually heroic act?” If so, they deserve a medal. However, I hope we are not failing to honor are current heroes, because we failed to do so in the past or have we set the bar so high that they only way one can be awarded the MOH is to die in the process. That doesn’t make any sense either.
On Memorial Day I went to the National Cemetery in Riverside, CA to visit my Uncle’s grave. I went early to beat the crowd and also took the time to walk through the MOH pavilion where the MOH awardees were listed. They were categorized by war or engagement. Some were from wars or engagements I was not familiar with. Some folks were awarded more then one MOH. I got the feeling that the criteria has changed over time or maybe changed as our culture changed.
I’m not saying we should cheapen the MOH. But to only give five or seven MOH’s with all the fighting going on doesn’t seem to be right.