New Medal of Honor Recipient

[colcifer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/us...imes&seid=auto
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011...imes&seid=auto

Marine Corporal conducts one-man rescue op in a kill zone.

[nutdog]

Quite a fine young man.

[colcifer]

Yeah, it's too bad we don't get to hear about more of them. The MoH has been very rarely given in these current wars (some have speculated that it's because recipients' personal life will be subject to media scrutiny and might go against values promoted by [politician you don't like]) and silver stars don't get any coverage.

[Horny Toad]

Originally Posted by colcifer

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/us...imes&seid=auto
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011...imes&seid=auto

Marine Corporal conducts one-man rescue op in a kill zone.

Outstanding.

[cassanova]

I was watching this on TV earlier today as it happened. I was very glad of two things. The first being, he lived through the engagement and didn't get it posthumously, and the second, that he's a Marine. Mad Kudos to that devil dog, for going above and beyond, to those other men alive. Semper Fi!

[Munjibunga]

I found it interesting that he, a corporal, made the decision to go in (against orders) and got a staff sergeant to drive the Humvee. The staff sergeant got the Navy Cross, one notch below the MOH. They made several trips in different Humvees because the guns jammed.

[Solarmist]

These are some of the bravest most honorable people on the planet.

[GregC]

That's remarkable bravery and dedication, kudos to this young man.

And may he get boatloads of booty.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

It's a pretty awesome story, and good that they got through without further loss of life!

Originally Posted by colcifer

The MoH has been very rarely given in these current wars (some have speculated that it's because recipients' personal life will be subject to media scrutiny and might go against values promoted by [politician you don't like]) and silver stars don't get any coverage.

I thought the MoH was very rarely given out, period?

Significantly rarer for the recipient to have lived through the ordeal for which he received the medal?

Just throwing some numbers out there (taken from wiki, but I have no reason to doubt and nowhere more legit to look for this stuff):

WW2 - 16 million US military personnel. Over 670,000 wounded, over 450,000 killed. 464 Medal of Honour recipients (266 being post-humus).

I'm not saying you don't have brave men and women in the fighting forces these days (those guys showed that there are), just that, historically, conflict happened on a greater scale involving greater numbers of troops (and hence more valorous actions and commendations) ?

[colcifer]

~11-3M US combat troops in WWII, IIRC, depending on who you ask. Thankfully we aren't fighting on that scale (we've got ~200K in Iran and Afghanistan, last I checked) but just 10 Medals of Honor seems a bit stingy, IMO. Let's not keep that from honoring this young man, though.

[cassanova]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

I found it interesting that he, a corporal, made the decision to go in (against orders) and got a staff sergeant to drive the Humvee.

That was something that I found interesting too. It's good thing he was put up for the Medal, because I'd almost guarantee he'd had been put up for an Article 15 hearing (at the least) for disobeying a lawful order.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by colcifer

~11-3M US combat troops in WWII, IIRC, depending on who you ask. Thankfully we aren't fighting on that scale (we've got ~200K in Iran and Afghanistan, last I checked) but just 10 Medals of Honor seems a bit stingy, IMO. Let's not keep that from honoring this young man, though.

It kinda highlights just how courageous you need to be in order to be considered for one. That in itself certainly isn't taking away from it! Especially considering he is the only living soldier to be awarded it during the 10 years of this conflict!

(Also, if you crunch the numbers, it works out to a ball-park area ratio that matches between WW2 and 2001-2011)

[colcifer]

Dammit! I typed 'Iran' instead of 'Iraq' and '~11-3M' instead of '~11-13M.' I hate when I make typos.

Anyhoo, the ratio for Iraq/Afghanistan is ~1/3 less than WWII. I'll be beating a dead horse soon though so I'll shut up.

[()smoke()]

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

It kinda highlights just how courageous you need to be in order to be considered for one. That in itself certainly isn't taking away from it! Especially considering he is the only living soldier to be awarded it during the 10 years of this conflict!

(Also, if you crunch the numbers, it works out to a ball-park area ratio that matches between WW2 and 2001-2011)

actually, he's the only living marine awarded the honor--but army ranger Leroy Petry is also a living recipient awarded in this war

[Waterpilot]

Originally Posted by cassanova

I was watching this on TV earlier today as it happened. I was very glad of two things. The first being, he lived through the engagement and didn't get it posthumously, and the second, that he's a Marine. Mad Kudos to that devil dog, for going above and beyond, to those other men alive. Semper Fi!

+1 Under the circumstances, a hero.

[MEKer]

major salutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!