Max Boot: Stingy on the Medal of Honor
There is no doubt that Sergeant First Class Jared Monti earned the Medal of Honor bestowed by President Obama on Thursday. But he wasn’t around to collect it because he died as a result of the heroic actions for which he was cited. That makes Sergeant Monti an extraordinary human being but a run-of-the-mill Medal of Honor recipient. Four of the nation’s highest medals have been awarded in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, two in Somalia—all posthumously. A Medal of Honor hasn’t been given to a living recipient since the Vietnam War.
This is a bit of a historical aberration because out of 3,467 Medals of Honor handed out since the award’s inception during the Civil War, only 620 have been awarded posthumously. That makes it all the more striking that the only way a service member can earn one of these decorations of late is by giving his or her life. I can’t help wondering why some of the heroes who have been given Navy Crosses or Distinguished Service Crosses haven’t been decorated with the Medal of Honor instead. Take, for example, the case of Marine Private First Class Richard S. Weinmaster, who recently received the Navy Cross, his service’s second-highest award. Here is his citation:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Private First Class Richard S. Weinmaster, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as Automatic Rifleman, 3d Platoon, Company E, Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, Marine Corps Forces, Central Command (Forward), in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM on 8 July 2008. Private First Class Weinmaster’s squad was conducting a dismounted patrol down a narrow side street in the Sangin District of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces ambushed the squad with machine gun fire and hand grenades. Upon contact, Private First Class Weinmaster immediately began engaging the enemy positions with his squad automatic weapon. As he delivered suppressive fire and assaulted the enemy, encountering a withering volume of fire that passed within meters of his position, Private First Class Weinmaster saw two hand grenades tossed over a wall land in the middle of his patrol. Noting where one of the grenades landed, he quickly placed himself between the grenade and his fire team leader, using his body to shield both his team leader and several other Marines from the blast, which occurred immediately. Private first Class Weinmaster was seriously injured when the grenade detonated, but his valorous actions prevented his fire team leader from receiving any shrapnel. Although he was critically wounded, Private First Class Weinmaster continued to carry on the attack, engaging enemy forces with accurate automatic weapons fire and forcing them to break contact, until he collapsed from the gravity of his wounds. By his outstanding display of decisive action, unlimited courage in the face of extreme danger, and total dedication to duty, Private First Class Weinmaster reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
As an Army friend of mine—Lieutenant Colonel Bob Bateman—commented: “And somehow this doesn’t rise to the level of ‘heroism, above and beyond the call of duty’? What is wrong with us? How is this not worthy of a Medal of Honor? When did the level rise to ‘must be dead’?” Good questions. Obviously we don’t want “grade inflation” in the awarding of medals (some of which has occurred among lesser decorations), but the stinginess in awarding the Medal of Honor today seems a bit crass given how many acts of awe-inspiring heroism have been performed in Iraq and Afghanistan—two of the longest wars in our history.