19 'overlooked' veterans to receive Medal of Honor

[Baz]

Great story....check it out before commenting:

Obama to award Medal of Honor to two dozen, including 19 overlooked minority service members - The Washington Post

These 19 vets were passed over apparently because of their religion and/or race.

They are all heroes.

I thank.....and salute them all.

[strupgolf]

Now awarding the highest medal on the basis of race? Wow, things sure have changed. And 19 to boot.

[azasadny]

Bravery knows no gender, race or nation of origin, unfortunately politics does....

[widgeon13]

I disagree with what was done, still think it was politically motivated.

[dw1]

I don't think it was as politically motivated as some might think, since the initiation of the review pre-dates the current administration:
"The unusual presentation will culminate a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress into past discrimination in the ranks..."

[widgeon13]

Perhaps I spoke too soon.

"The unusual mass ceremony, scheduled for March 18, will honor veterans, most of Hispanic or Jewish heritage, who already had been recognized with the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest military award."

I have a college classmate (friend) who was a POW for over a year and received the DSC. I don't even know or care what religion he is or was. I still disagree with doing all this after the fact. I never did like do overs. I'm certain there were others who were overlooked for various reasons, when will they get their MOH?

Let's put them in Cracker Jack boxes. Let's start reviewing all murder convictions of those of African American, Hispanic and Jewish heritage, perhaps there were some inequities there as well. Where does it stop?

[Super_Dave_D]

I was all for this but then I think about How Dick Winters couldn't get his upgrade for Brécourt Manor



Three kilometers from Ste. Marie-du-Mont, the column encountered sustained enemy fire, and Winters was summoned to the front. The battalion commander informed Winters that there was a four-gun battery of German 105 mm cannons, a few hundred meters to the front across an open field opposite a French farmhouse called Brécourt Manor. The battery was set up in a hedgerow and defended by a 50-man German platoon. The guns were firing directly down a causeway leading to Utah Beach. The battalion operations officer directed Winters to take the battery. Taking his company, Winters made a careful reconnaissance and then issued orders for an assault. The attack would consist of a frontal assault led by Winters with covering fire from several directions to pin down the Germans. Winters selected three soldiers for the assault: Pvt. Gerald Lorraine, Pvt. Popeye Wynn and Cpl. Joe Toye. Asked later why he selected these three, Winters recalled, "In combat you look for killers.' Many thought they were killers and wanted to prove it. They are, however, few and far between."

Winters saw the impending attack as a "high risk opportunity." The key was "initiative, an immediate appraisal of situation, the use of terrain to get into the connecting trench and taking one gun at a time." Crawling on their bellies, Winters and his men got close enough and knocked out the first gun. Mowing down the retreating Germans, Winters then placed a machine gun to fire down the trench. He had also noticed that as soon as he got close enough to assault the first gun, the Germans in an adjacent hedgerow temporary lifted their fire so that they would not inflict friendly casualties. That was enough for Winters, who had a "sixth sense" that such a respite shifted the advantage to him.

With the first gun out of action, Winters grabbed two other soldiers and charged the second gun. Throwing hand grenades and firing their rifles, they took the second howitzer. Next to the gun was a case with a map that showed all the German artillery in the Cotentin Peninsula. Winters sent the map back to battalion headquarters and then directed another assault which rapidly captured the third gun. Reinforcements led by an officer from D Company soon arrived. Winters briefly outlined the situation and then watched D Company capture the last gun. With the mission complete, Winters ordered a withdrawal. It was 11:30 a.m., roughly three hours since Winters had received the order to take the battery. In summarizing Easy's action, historian Stephen Ambrose notes that with 12 men, what amounted to a squad, later reinforced by elements of D Company, Winters had destroyed a German battery, killed 15 Germans, wounded many more, and taken 12 prisoners. It would be a gross exaggeration to say that Easy Company saved the day at Utah Beach, but reasonable to say that it had made an important contribution to the success of the invasion.

Winters' action at Brécourt Manor was a textbook infantry assault, frequently studied at the U.S. Military Academy. Ever the self-effacing leader, Winters described the action to combat historian S.L.A. Marshall simply as laying down a base of fire to cover the assault. Left unsaid was his leadership by example. At every turn he had made the correct decision, from selecting the right men for each task, to making an accurate reconnaissance of the enemy position, to leading the maneuver element in person. In his own analysis, Winters credited his training and preparing for D-Day, his "apogee" in command. When the day was finally over, he wrote in his diary that if he survived the war, he would find an isolated farm somewhere and spend the rest of his life in peace.