Medal of Honor Day

[sailaway21]

March 25th has been designated as Medal of Honor Day, in recognition of the over 3400 men who have received the CMH. Something like 100 are still living.
The most recent is Bruce Crandall, or "Snake", as portrayed by Greg Kinnear in "We Were Soldiers". Crandall was a helicopter pilot in that famous battle and resisted the CMH for years. He finally acquiesed after his wingman Ed "Too Tall" Freeman was awarded the CMH in 2001.
In a clip on Fox News Channel, Crandall summarized his heroism by saying, "I was just hoping I didn't screw it up." Brit Hume's response was a classic, "Where do they find these men?"
For anyone who has seen the movie, I would highly recommend the book, "We Were Soldiers Once, And Young", written by Lt Gen Hal Moore who led the 7th Cavalry, Custer's Regiment, as a Colonel in Viet Nam. The lingering memory I have of the book about the pitched battle at Ia Drang, is that Moore knows the whereabouts of all who survived the battle. It is hard not to think of Charge of the Light Brigade when reading the book or viewing the movie. Except, in this case, the Light Brigade triumphs. Moore and Crandall collaborated on the movie and vouch for it's authenticity. Anyone watching it on DVD should check out the deleted scenes for the one on the CMH sergeant. You'll laugh your butt off.

The Maritime Pre-positioned Ships, MPS, stationed in Guam and Diego Garcia with prepositioned gear for the USMC are merchant ships all named after CMH recipients from the Marine Corps.

Unfortunately, we live in an age where heroism is defined by events taking place on a field of sport, and there seems to no time, and less interest, in reporting on the real heroes amoung us. I am struck by those amputees we see at Walter Reed whose only expressed desire is to rejoin their fellow soldiers in their units. Where indeed, do we find such men?

[sailingdog]

Sailaway,

While it is commonly called the Congressional Medal of Honor, the actual name of the award is the Medal of Honor. It has to be awarded by Congress, but that isn't part of its name.

I will have to check out that movie, as I have not seen it yet. Cool fact on the MPS ships.

The other truly unfortunate thing is the behavior that is often associated with the sports heroes is far from what I would want my children, if I had any, to emulate. They are often vain, greedy, arrogant, and selfish. These are not traits that are commonly seen as being good. The Medal of Honor recipients that I have read about or seen video/film/television segments about do not represent those values, but ones of selflessness, modesty, bravery and other traits, which I consider to be desireable.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.