| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| This page is from The Website for Young Marines |
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| This page is from The Website for Young Marines |
(The following information is excerpted from The American History section of The Mining company and was written by David Schwalbe - americanhistory.guide@miningco.com)
A bronze five-pointed star hanging from a bar bearing the word "valor". This is the highest military decoration our nation bestows upon members of its Armed Forces--the Medal of Honor. It is not for deeds of bravery in the line of battle; I leave out the word "merely", for any deeds of bravery should be noteworthy. But rather, it is for deeds of bravery so outstanding that it is distinguished as gallantry beyond the call of duty; involving a risk of life, and if not performed, would not leave the individual open to criticism.
With it being such a high honor, there are provisions set up that leave no room for doubt or error. The deed must be proven by incontestable evidence of at least two eyewitnesses.
In the 136 years since the Medal of Honor was established, a total of 3,428 Medals have been awarded (as of April 1998), to a total of 3,408 recipients (twenty have received the Medal twice). Although the Navy's award was the first established, the Army has awarded 2,363 of the Medals.
Although the proper name of the award is the Medal of Honor (Army Medal of Honor, Navy Medal of Honor, etc.), it is due to the fact that it was established by an act of Congress, that most erroneously refer to it as the "Congressional Medal of Honor".
Origin of the Medal of Honor
Although there were special medals voted by Congress for special contributions (the first awarded to George Washington in 1776; the first awarded to common soldiers were those given to three militiamen who jumped and captured a spy named John Andre), there were no special awards for servicemen. As in many situations in this young country, there was an aversion to continuing official customs (such as awarding medals or titles) that were common practice in Europe. In addition, many felt that whatever actions were performed in the service of one's country to be a common duty. But the Civil War changed many perceptions in that regard.
In November 1861, a Colonel Townsend noticed a boy responding to foreign officers standing in front of a hotel in Washington. The boy replied that it was the medals he responded to. The following week Townsend conferred with Secretary of War Stanton, with Navy Secretary Gideon Welles at the meeting. Although Stanton cautioned that the ranking Army officer, General Winfield Scott, would never approve of a "medal of honor", Welles immediately responded in favor of such an idea.
Soonafter, an act was proposed in the Senate to create a Navy Medal of Honor, which was signed into law on December 21, 1861. The act was called "The Act to Promote the Efficiency of the Navy". The Secretary of the Navy was authorized to prepare 200 Medals of Honor. Officers were excluded as gallantry was to be considered part of their duty and not be rewarded.
(The above information is excerpted from The American History section of The Mining company and was written by David Schwalbe - americanhistory.guide@miningco.com)
The president, in the name of Congress, has awarded more than 3,400 Medals of Honor to our nation's bravest soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration's creation in 1861.
For years, the citations highlighting these acts of bravery and heroism resided in dusty archives and only sporadically were printed. In 1973, the U.S. Senate ordered the citations compiled and printed as Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973). This book was later updated and reprinted in 1979.
The breakdown of these is a duplicate of that in the congressional compilation. Likewise, some minor misspelling and other errors are duplicated from the official government volume. These likely were the result of the original transcriptions. The following is an index of the full-text files by war.
This information is linked from U.S. Army.
|
|
Page Construction by hadduck Enterprises All Rights Reserved - 1998
