A young Marine is set to receive the Navy’s highest honor – and the nation’s second highest – for valor today: The Navy Cross.
Lance Cpl. Richard Weinmaster, 20, of Cozad, Neb., was part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment deployed last year to break the Taliban’s hold on Helmand Province.
On a July 8 foot patrol, Weinmaster’s squad was ambushed. Weinmaster used his body to protect his squad leader and other Marines from the blast of an enemy grenade.
Although seriously wounded, he continued to fire at the attackers, forcing them to flee. Only then did Weinmaster collapse from his injuries. He is credited with saving the lives of several Marines.
Oo-rah, Lance Corporal, and Semper Fi. Greater love hath no man than this.
But it does ask the question: What more would a man have to do to earn the Medal of Honor?
As of yet, despite almost 5000 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, no living US serviceman has received the Medal of Honor. It has become, despite tales of bravery and sacrifice almost too incredible to believe, a post mortem award.
Six servicemen have received the nation’s highest honor for their service overseas in the nation’s wars. All of them posthumously. Three of those six were awarded the MOH for covering a grenade, saving the lives of their brothers in arms. Just as LCpl Weinmaster did.
Weinmaster’s intent was no different than that of Michael Monsoor, Ross McGinnis and Jason Dunham. His personal bravery, dedication and loyalty no less. Has is it really come to this, that a serviceman must die to be recognized by his country for acting “conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States”?
Throughout our nation’s history 3467 Medals of Honor have been awarded, only 18% posthumously. Even given the fact that many awards were given away profligately before modern standard were set, only 61% of MOHs were awarded posthumously between World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Since Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan the level rises to 100% – a small data sample to be sure, but a daunting standard by which not only to reward valor, but encourage it.
What’s a serviceman got to do?
Die, apparently.
Allowing a MoH hero to be alive MoH hero would provide that individual with unequaled moral authority to criticize the legislative and the executive.
Neither branch, nor either party, is anxious to enable a man of courage to voice criticisms of themselves, much less compliments, if any, of their political foes.
Sure, I’ve never seen a modern MoH recipient politicize his award. ( Around the turn of the century there was a lady doctor from the Civil War who wore hers, after it was rescinded, and used it to campaign for many causes) I imagine it would be an unthinkable slap at his comrades, but I don’t imagine most of US leadership would understand such restraint.
A minor disagreement here, Joel. Col. Bud Day was pictured prominently wearing his MoH in the Swift Boat ads and videos. But then again, he was on the correct side of that argument.
Yes, Lance Cpl. Richard Weinmaster deserves a Medal of Honor.
Absolutely!
I heard a dozen theories for the lack of living MOH recipients, but none of them seem to hold water. Some say it is because the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is unpopular at home, but we still gave out MOH’s in Vietnam. Others say that it is because there is too much politics involved with the highest awards, but wouldn’t a living MOH recipient be a great thing for morale and recruiting for the military?
I think it started as an overreaction to the Gulf War, when MSM’s and Bronze and Silver Stars were handed out like candy to senior leaders. Then, once the drought of MOH’s reached a few years long, there is an institutional resistance to giving out a MOH to a living person, because it seems like the first one to break the string will have to be perfect.
It will take the SecDef or Chairman JCS to get the MOH award back on track.
I think the bigger question is, what does he have to do to get promoted? Marine infantry MOSs have astronomical “cutting scores” (think promotion points, w/o test scores) to make E4 or 5. They also have meritorious promotion boards, not bound by the points. Now, unless Lcpl Weinmaster is a dirtbag, then who in his batallion was more deserving of becoming an NCO? What better example of selfless service is there? Who wouldn’t listen when he told them what needed to be done?
I don’t know who will be there for the award ceremony. Who ever it is, should be ashamed that this young hero isn’t an NCO.
Perplexing. At what level does the award decision get made?
Boy, Scott has a HUGE point, and I think Potsoi Joel is pretty much on tgt–indeed that’s the first thought that came to MY mind and seems “PJ” has beaten me to the punch this am. I just don’t know how else to explain this syndrome otherwise.
The only other poss. explanation might be subconscious “group-think” bureaucratic inertia. Once the trend is established for whatever reason, it then takes something even MORE extraordinary in order to provide a reason to break the pattern. But that’s just my VERY unscientific WAG.
I think it’s a bit of All Of The Above. The Vietnam era left a sense that medals were being issued too frequently (untrue for the higher awards, BTW). Not to mention the cost…the MOH comes with the right for all children to attend the service academies.
Personally, I think it’s a crock.
Amen to all the above.
And a sincere thank you and most respectful salute to a true HERO, LCPL Richard Weinmaster, who surely deserves a promotion. And, free beer for life.
Heroism. If you think too long on this, it simply takes your breath away the sacrifices some are willing to make without regard for their own life.
As an aside, I took one of my boys to the National Museum of the Marine Corps last week. LCPL Weinmaster will be an excellent addition to that hall of heroes.
It seems this situation may have been brought to someone’s attention: Death Before This Honor.
I wonder if this is the case that the Commandant refers to in the video link?
Congratulations to Lcpl. Weinmaster on his Navy Cross. Semper Fi!
I’m at a loss for an explanation of this sad fact, as well. One would think our most senior leadership would have recognized some of the MANY selfless acts of bravery (on the part of the living) we’ve seen in these two wars with a Medal of Honor. A mystery, indeed.
The reason is that medal of honor gives person too much power in USA. Patriotic, which means the most of US, people listen and think about what the honorable people say. Today there is no honor without money. Think about some slum gang kid mariner saying that -”hey we might be seem bad but our gang has to do this for this and this person does arranged this areas political money to these pockets here and there. I would die for even you but I cant live in mafia US without brotherly protection.”
Think what would happen if people would consider and dig deeper..
So, just to pique my interest, what planet do you normally reside on? That is, when you are NOT visiting Earth?
Same dude who was here last week posting wordnoise under the handle “krmh”. IP tracks back to Amsterdam, and then I lose him/her.
I’m feeling heavily-sedated English-as-a-second-language person.
I don’t claim to be an expert, or anything even resembling an expert, on the current fighting, or survival rates among medal recipients, or on the rates of medal awards through the years.
I do, however, claim to be a minor expert on certain battles of WW2, including that of Iwo Jima. 22 Marines and five Navy corpsmen were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions on Iwo. 14 lived to receive their award. 6 of those medals were awarded to Marines who smothered a grenade with their bodies to save comrades. Only one of the six survived his action.
How could anyone say that this Marine’s action is any less heroic than his brothers of 64 years ago? Lance Corporal Weinmaster definitely deserves the Medal of Honor.
Lex/
“heavily sedated”
Sort of like how Iron Butterfly’s hit “In-a-Godda-da-Vida” came to be named instead of “In the Garden of Eden?”
“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida…”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBbv2v0xOlA
Americans like our heroes perfect; when we award the MoH post-mortem we assure that no later human failing will tarnish that image of perfection. With a living awardee we run the risk that our honoree will prove to be merely ordinary (or worse) later.
The press may routinely ignore our heroes, but a fallen hero would certainly make the news – scandal sells. We don’t have any living MoH winners because the theoretical downside risk outweighs the upside.
There are probably a variety of reasons for this, most of which have been expressed here.
I would also posit that its also a problem with perception of the American Soldier (et all). That huge disconnect between the general population and the military plays a part here, as does tv and movies. There is this perception of military members as being consummate warriors that are somehow less human. Its a case of there being this acceptance that “falling on a grenade” or “taking a bullet” for your buddies is what is expected of all those in uniform. Its just what you all do, right? And only in death have you proved that you are any better than the rest of the military population because, you know, you actually died. I don’t believe that Congress or the DoD heads are any less immune to this type of thinking.
I think that the most sad part of our current history, is that we seem to not have sufficient tar and feathers to treat out congress critters to the respect that they have earned.
A pox on all of them, to the 7th generation.
[...] The Medal. Go. Read. Comment. [...]
The Medal of Honor confers special privileges on its recipients. By law, recipients have several benefits:
* Each Medal of Honor recipient may have his or her name entered on the Medal of Honor Roll (38 U.S.C. § 1560). Each person whose name is placed on the Medal of Honor Roll is certified to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as being entitled to receive the special pension of US $1,027 per month above and beyond any military pensions or other benefits for which they may be eligible. As of December 1, 2004, the pension is subject to cost-of-living increases.
* Enlisted recipients of the Medal of Honor are entitled to a supplemental uniform allowance.
* Recipients receive special entitlements to air transportation under the provisions of DOD Regulation 4515.13-R.
* Special identification cards and commissary and exchange privileges are provided for Medal of Honor recipients and their eligible dependents.
* Fully qualified children of recipients are eligible for admission to the United States military academies without regard to the nomination and quota requirements.
* Recipients receive a 10% increase in retired pay under 10 U.S.C. § 3991.
* Those awarded the medal after October 23, 2002, also receive a Medal of Honor Flag. The law also specifies that all 103 living prior recipients also receive the flag.(14 U.S.C. § 505).
* As with all medals, retired personnel may wear the Medal of Honor on “appropriate” civilian clothing. Regulations also specify that recipients of the Medal of Honor are allowed to wear the uniform “at their pleasure” with standard restrictions on political, commercial, or extremist purposes; other former members of the armed forces may do so only at certain ceremonial occasions.
Saluting
* It is customary for a Medal of Honor recipient to always be saluted, no matter what the rank. Even the president of the United States must salute first, every congressman and senator must salute first. Can you imagine standing in front of or walking by BBFNT kerry or blarny fluck, or policie wearing the MOH and they are REQUIRED to salute YOU first? Those people would definitely not want to do that, ever.
* Recipients are always greeted and saluted before non-recipients are greeted or saluted.
Along with the money increase, because there is not money left for this sort of benefit and the other benefits this gives you, this is why it is not given out any more, to costly and a would be embarrassment to the one, because he would have to recognize that standing before him is a greater human being than he will EVER achieve in a trillion life times.
Lex,
That’s a good question.
If Brian Chontosh doesn’t deserve the MoH, I don’t know who does!
Well, with three of the four Victoria Cross awards having gone to living recipients…