I am a Distinguished Flying Cross recipient for actions performed in aerial
flight while rescuing wounded soldiers in 1968 Vietnam. Why did I do it? It
was necessary to help those wounded men. Also, it was my job at that time.
“I was not out to ‘Win a medal.’ Because medals for bravery or combat
achievement are not WON.”
Medal Of Honor Winner is
incorrect. Medals in the Military are not for some athletic contest. It is
incorrect to say a person won the
Medal Of Honor or any other medal received for actions taken in combat.
Example: I was wounded in Vietnam while on a Medevac mission to bring
wounded soldiers to a hospital for treatment. Can you say I won the
Purple Heart? Of course you cannot. The Purple Heart is given to those
killed or wounded in action. One cannot say that the person who was killed, won the
Purple Heart. Nor can one say that by bringing a soldier to a hospital after
getting wounded, I won.
So, one cannot say that the Medal Of Honor is won.
Many recipients of a MOH died as a result of actions taken. Those that were
awarded the MOH posthumously certainly cannot be said to be winners.
Dying is not something a person wins.
Please do not call those awarded, are recipients of, or holders of a medal, winners. That
is (unknowningly) a gross disrespect for our soldiers who put their lives on
the line for Americans and other peoples of the world.
Remember this above all else concerning Military Medals: All of the combat
Medal recipients would gladly give up their medals if the dead soldiers
could be alive and those Disabled For Life could be restored to their former
“whole” selves.
The following is paraphrased from the book “Medal of Honor” with foreword by
President George H. W. Bush and essays by Senator John McCain, Victor Davis
Hanson, and Tom Brokaw.
Nobody signs up to win the Medal Of Honor (MOH). It is earned. At the
intersection of happenstance and hell, and you’re there because that’s what
your country has asked of you. The recipients of the MOH will all tell you
they are merely the caretakers of the medal for their comrades left behind
on the battlefield. The recipients are living reminders of the cost of
freedom, a price that we are periodically required to pay in blood and
suffering and courage to remain free and to assist other nations in their
try for freedom.
