National Medal of Honor Day

[waltky]

Today is National Medal of Honor Day...

NATIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR DAY
25 Mar.`16 - National Medal of Honor day is a day that is dedicated to all Medal of Honor recipients.

It was on March 25, 1863 when the first Medals of Honor were presented. Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton presented Medals of Honor (Army) to six members of “Andrews Raiders” for their volunteering and participation during an American Civil War raid in April of 1862.

Created in 1861, the Medal of Honor is the United States of America’s highest military honor. It is awarded only to US military personnel, by the President of the United States in the name of Congress, for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.

There are three versions of the Medal of Honor; one for the Army, one for the Navy and one for the Air Force, with personnel of the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard receiving the Navy version.

Since its creation, there have been 3,468 Medals of Honor awarded to the country’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coast guardsmen.

HOW TO OBSERVE

See also:

National Medal of Honor Day - Video on NBCNews.com

Related:

Navy Illustrates SEAL's Heroic Actions in Afghanistan to Honor MoH Day
Mar 25, 2016 | In honor of National Medal of Honor Day, the U.S. Navy created an informational graphic depicting the December 2012 hostage-rescue mission that earned Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward C. Byers Jr. the nation's highest award for valor.

On Feb. 29, the Navy SEAL received the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions on Dec. 8-9 while serving as part of a team that rescued American aid worker, Dr. Dilip Joseph, a civilian being held hostage in Afghanistan. Congress has designated March 25 each year as National Medal of Honor Day to commemorate the day the first Medal of Honor was presented in 1863. The prestigious award has "bestowed on 3,496 men and one woman (a Civil War surgeon) since President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law on Dec. 21, 1861," according to a Defense Department webpage honoring the 18 Medal of Honor recipients from Iraq and Afghanistan.

A high-resolution version of the info graphic can be found on the Navy's website at Navy.mil - View Image. Byers, 36, became the first living sailor since the Vietnam War to receive the honor. Two other SEALs, Lt. Michael Murphy and Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, received the Medal of Honor posthumously for heroism in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively. In all, six SEALs including Byers have received the medal; two of them, Retired Lt. Thomas Rolland Norris and Retired Lt. Michael Edwin Thornton, were present for the ceremony. In 1980, Thornton became the founding member of SEAL Team Six, the elite group of special operators to which Byers also belonged.

The rescue mission started on a cold December night. Byers and his team conducted a four-hour trek over mountainous terrain and primitive roads to where intelligence indicated Joseph was being held, in a compound in the Qarghah'i district of Laghman province. Another member of the SEAL team, Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas Checque, was the first into the compound, charging bravely to the entrance after a gate sentry was alerted to the presence of the team. He fell wounded from an AK-47 round to the head.

According to his summary of action, Byers was the second into the compound, sprinting in on Checque's heels. In the darkness, Byers first pulled down six layers of blankets that served as a primitive door, then began taking out enemy guards one by one. He took down one man; then jumped on another, grappling with him physically on the ground until he could adjust his night-vision goggles and identify him as the enemy. After that threat was dispatched, Byers and his teammates began calling out for Joseph to determine his location.

MORE

 

[Auld Phart]

Drat, I forgot.

 

[waltky]

Long overdue...

Retired Army Vietnam Vet to Receive the Medal of Honor
Jun 21, 2016 | President Obama will award retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Kettles the nation’s highest award for heroism for saving 44 American soldiers during a May 15, 1967 enemy ambush in the Vietnam War.

On Monday, July 18, 2016, Kettles is scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry for his actions while serving as a flight commander assigned to 176th Aviation Company (Airmobile) (Light), 14th Combat Aviation Battalion, Americal Division. "Then-Major Kettles distinguished himself in combat operations near Duc Pho, Republic of Vietnam, on May 15, 1967," according to a June 21 White House press release. "He led a platoon of UH-1Ds to provide support to the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, during an ambush by a battalion-sized enemy force." After leading several trips to the hot landing zone and evacuating the wounded, he returned, without additional aerial support, to rescue a squad-sized element of stranded soldiers pinned down by enemy fire. Kettles is credited with saving the lives of 40 soldiers and four of his own crew members, according to the press release.

Kettles was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan on Jan. 9, 1930. He was drafted into the Army at age 21 while enrolled in Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) where he studied engineering. Upon completion of basic training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, Kettles attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and earned his commission as an armor officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Feb. 28, 1953. Kettles graduated from the Army Aviation School in 1954, before serving active duty tours in Korea, Japan and Thailand. Kettles volunteered for active duty in 1963. He attended Helicopter Transition Training at Fort Wolters, Texas in 1964. During a tour in France the following year, Kettles was cross-trained to fly the famed UH-1D "Huey."

In 1966. Kettles was assigned as a flight commander with the 176th Assault Helicopter Company, 14th Combat Aviation Battalion, and deployed to Vietnam from February through November 1967. His second tour of duty in Vietnam lasted from October 1969, through October 1970. In 1970, Kettles went to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as an aviation team chief and readiness coordinator supporting the Army Reserve. He remained in San Antonio until his retirement from the Army in 1978. Kettles has numerous awards and decorations including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal with one bronze oak leaf cluster, Air Medal with Numeral "27," and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with bronze star.

After leaving active duty, Kettles established a Ford dealership in Dewitt, Michigan, and continued his service with the Army Reserve as a member of the 4th Battalion, 20th Field Artillery. Kettles completed his bachelor’s degree at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, and earned his master’s degree at Eastern Michigan University, College of Technology, in commercial construction. He went on to develop the Aviation Management Program at the College of Technology and taught both disciplines. He later worked for Chrysler Pentastar Aviation until his retirement in 1993. Kettles currently lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with his wife Ann.

Retired Army Vietnam Vet to Receive the Medal of Honor | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Many feel Vietnam War Green Beret Medic Deserves Medal of Honor...

Green Beret Medic Could Be Next Vietnam War MOH Recipient
Jul 14, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The story of Green Beret Gary Michael Rose's heroism is an epic of classified warfare and a stinging media scandal, but it might soon end with a Medal of Honor.

In 1970, Rose was the lone medic for a company of Special Forces soldiers and indigenous Vietnamese fighters during a risky, four-day assault deep into Laos. The badly injured Rose helped bring all the soldiers back alive and received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest military honor, during a ceremony at the time in Vietnam. "He is not a gung-ho person, he is very thoughtful, but he was a hell of a medic and I trusted him with my life," said Keith Plancich, 66, who was a Special Forces squad leader on the mission. But Rose and the other men were wrongly accused of taking part in war crimes in 1998 after the mission, called Operation Tailwind, was declassified and unearthed for the first time by CNN and its partner Time magazine.

Gary Michael Rose receives the Distinguished Service Cross from Gen. Creighton Abrams, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, for heroism during Operation Tailwind.​

Stunning claims that Rose and the Green Berets were sent to Laos to kill American defectors and that the military used sarin gas during the mission were fully discredited. CNN and Time retracted the story, which was co-written and presented by famed journalist Peter Arnett, but it cast a shadow over the mission that still remains. The highest recognition of heroism is close for Rose and the Green Berets. The soft-spoken former medic might be the next Vietnam veteran to receive the Medal of Honor, after President Barack Obama presents the medal to retired Army pilot Lt. Col. Charles Kettles on Monday.

'Create such havoc'

In September 1970, Rose and 15 Green Berets along with more than 100 Vietnamese tribal fighters called Montagnards were dropped into the Laotian jungle by CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. The elite soldiers were with the Army's opaquely named Studies and Observations Group based in southern Vietnam. Far from studying intelligence, the Special Forces unit was leading groups of the indigenous fighters on classified raider missions into Laos, where the United States was waging a covert war against North Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. "They were going to create such havoc," said retired Maj. John Plaster, a former Special Forces sniper and military historian who also served with Rose in the SOG. Rose declined interview requests for this story.

The Green Berets and their company of indigenous fighters were tapped to take pressure off the CIA, which was running operations in the Laotian highlands, by drawing the attention of at least two North Vietnamese Army regiments in the area, Plaster said.

'Gary kept them moving'

 

[yiostheoy]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.

These days even during Viet Nam and since they have been a lot easier to get.

Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.

Now what used to qualify for a silver star or navy cross easily gets one.

Times have changed.

 

[waltky]

New Details Reveal Airman John Chapman's Heroism at Roberts Ridge...

New Details Reveal Airman John Chapman's Heroism at Roberts Ridge
22 Aug 2018 - Tech. Sgt. John Chapman ran out of a bunker on the Takur Ghar mountaintop for the second time, intentionally risking fire from heavily armed enemy fighters.

Shot several times already, Chapman attempted to halt the al-Qaida forces' assault on an incoming MH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying U.S. special operators. He no longer had the cover of night, and exposed himself to the enemy as he ran. Dashing out to the ridge line in five-foot-deep snow, Chapman fired at the enemy fighters who were loading rocket-propelled grenades, helping additional American forces to enter the landing zone. It would be his final bold act before two shots from a large-caliber machine gun cut through his torso, one destroying his aorta and killing him instantly. But this, Chapman's final fight, occurred well after the special tactics airman had already been presumed dead.

A 30-month investigation involving eyewitness testimony from nearby Armyand Air Force service members and drone targeteers, intelligence reports and aircraft video feed proved that Chapman not only lived after he was initially hit and knocked unconscious early in the mission, but that he at one point engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, fighting for about 70 harrowing minutes on the ground alone. This week, officials who investigated the circumstances surrounding his death spoke publicly for the first time about their findings.

Chapman, a combat controller assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, an upgrade of his Air Force Cross, for his actions on March 4, 2002, during a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday. He will become the first U.S. airman to receive the military's highest award since the Vietnam War. "John was the only American that was alive on [that] mountain top, and there was somebody fighting for an hour," said an Air Force special tactics officer who was part of the investigation team.

Speaking on background during a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday, the officer explained how the Air Force Special Operations investigative team and the Pentagon concluded that Chapman had lived and continued to fight after his presumed death. "When you watch [these videos], heroism jumps right off the page at you," the officer said. "It chokes you up, and it makes you realize the incredible sacrifice." He added, "You don't have to do 30 months of analysis to see that."

In all, Chapman sustained nine wounds, seven of which were nonfatal, according to his autopsy report. A medical examiner concluded he lived and fought through gunshot wounds to his thigh, heel, calf and torso, which pierced his liver. He had a broken nose and other facial wounds, suggesting he engaged in hand-to-hand combat in close quarters. The final fatal shots likely came from a PKM machine gun, officials said.

THE EVIDENCE

See also:

'Top Gun' Sequel Filming Aboard Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
22 Aug 2018 - The highway to the danger zone will run through Hampton Roads, VA.

The sequel to the 1986 Hollywood blockbuster "Top Gun" is filming aboard the Norfolk-based USS Abraham Lincoln this week, according to the Navy. The original film inspired an entire generation of fighter pilots and served as a recruiting bonanza for the Navy. The much-anticipated sequel began shooting on May 31, according to a photo on Tom Cruise's Instagram account. The photo featured him in a flight suit near a fighter jet with the same helmet he wore in the original film and referenced an oft-quoted line from the original movie: "I feel the need, the need for speed." The first day of shooting took place at Naval Air Station North Island in California, the Navy said.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).​

Few details about what the film will be about have been released, but Cruise revealed in an interview with "Access Hollywood" last year that it would be called "Top Gun: Maverick." "Stylistically it'll be the same," Cruise said in the interview. "We'll have big, fast machines. ... It's going to be a competition film like the first one and it's going to be in the same vein, the same tone as the first one, but a progression for Maverick." A 15-person crew from Paramount Pictures and Bruckheimer Films went aboard the Lincoln on Sunday and will remain through Saturday, said Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesman Cmdr. Dave Hecht. He said no actors are aboard and that the crew is shooting footage on the flight deck of air operations, which include F/A-18 Super Hornets from Virginia Beach-based Carrier Air Wing Seven taking off and landing as part of their carrier qualifications. "Top Gun inspired countless men and women to volunteer to protect and defend our country as Naval aviators and the crew of USS Abraham Lincoln are excited to play a small role in bringing this story back to the silver screen and inspiring another generation to serve in the world's finest Navy." "This opportunity is one of many aircraft carrier embarks planned pierside and at sea on both coasts coordinated by the Commander, Naval Air Forces," Hecht said in an email from aboard the Lincoln. "Top Gun inspired countless men and women to volunteer to protect and defend our country as Naval aviators and the crew of USS Abraham Lincoln are excited to play a small role in bringing this story back to the silver screen and inspiring another generation to serve in the world's finest Navy."

Michael Singer, a publicist with Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Television, declined to provide any details about the production in an email to The Virginian-Pilot. In July, Variety reported that "Only the Brave" star Miles Teller was tapped to play the son of "Goose" and is Cruise's new protege in the sequel. In the original film, Goose was played by Anthony Edwards and served as Cruise's radar intercept officer in the F-14 before his character died during a training accident. Cruise also said on the "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" last month that Val Kilmer, who played Cruise's rival, "Iceman," in the original film, would be returning for the sequel. Musician Kenny Loggins, who wrote the hit song "Danger Zone" for the original "Top Gun" soundtrack, told TMZ that he's spoken with Cruise and is interested in remaking the song for a sequel. "I'm hoping to do it maybe as a duet with a young act," Loggins said. "We have some feelers out to some pretty cool rock acts. ... Maybe do it his way or their way, depending on if it's a band or a soloist. So we'll reinvent the song to a point." The sequel is set to debut on July 12, 2019, according to Paramount

'Top Gun' Sequel Filming Aboard Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln

 

[harmonica]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.

These days even during Viet Nam and since they have been a lot easier to get.

Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.

Now what used to qualify for a silver star or navy cross easily gets one.

Times have changed.

MacArthur got one for F*&^ing up--a complete loss/mess/etc
I'm sure there are some that deserved it and some that didn't--now and back then

 

[Camp]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.

These days even during Viet Nam and since they have been a lot easier to get.

Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.

Now what used to qualify for a silver star or navy cross easily gets one.

Times have changed.

I don't believe you know what the hell you are talking about. On the day to honor these recipients you are dishonoring them. You are claiming recipients did not deserve them and should have received lesser awards.

 

[harmonica]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.

These days even during Viet Nam and since they have been a lot easier to get.

Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.

Now what used to qualify for a silver star or navy cross easily gets one.

Times have changed.

I don't believe you know what the hell you are talking about. On the day to honor these recipients you are dishonoring them. You are claiming recipients did not deserve them and should have received lesser awards.

MacArthur

 

[Camp]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.

These days even during Viet Nam and since they have been a lot easier to get.

Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.

Now what used to qualify for a silver star or navy cross easily gets one.

Times have changed.

MacArthur got one for F*&^ing up--a complete loss/mess/etc
I'm sure there are some that deserved it and some that didn't--now and back then

Besides your opinion about Mac, which recipients of the CMH do you claim did not deserve rhe award?

 

[Camp]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.


Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.
.

3,519 CHM's have been awarded. 622 were awarded Posthumously.
There are many assholes that post on these pages, but today you are rhe biggest one.

 

[harmonica]

I never did get this medal because the Cold War was all that was raging during my watch.

These days even during Viet Nam and since they have been a lot easier to get.

Used to be if you were not flag draped in a stainless steel box you did not get one.

Now what used to qualify for a silver star or navy cross easily gets one.

Times have changed.

MacArthur got one for F*&^ing up--a complete loss/mess/etc
I'm sure there are some that deserved it and some that didn't--now and back then

Besides your opinion about Mac, which recipients of the CMH do you claim did not deserve rhe award?

not opinion--fact--Philippines was a complete loss/mess
LBJ's Silver Star was questionable at best
LBJ's medal for valour 'was sham'
Johnson Was Awarded the Silver Star for Flight With Bomber Group in Pacific
Pat Tillman award was for lies
Betrayal of an all-American hero
there are many, many 'heroes' that ''deserve'' a medal/MOH that didn't get it
we can see by Mac's, Tillman's, and LBJ's awards that they can be undeserved

 

[whitehall]

Correctly called the "Medal of Honor" rather than the congressional MOH. An enlisted man who was awarded the MOH rates a salute from Officers.

 

[harmonica]

Correctly called the "Medal of Honor" rather than the congressional MOH. An enlisted man who was awarded the MOH rates a salute from Officers.

our Sgt Major was an MOH winner whom we saluted
Allan J. Kellogg - Wikipedia

 

[Camp]

Correctly called the "Medal of Honor" rather than the congressional MOH. An enlisted man who was awarded the MOH rates a salute from Officers.

Wrong. Congressional Medal of Honor. CMOH.

 

[harmonica]

appears it is the Medal of Honor authorized by congress

it is often referred to informally as the "Congressional Medal of Honor

[QUOTEto direct that the same be presented, in the name of Congress][/QUOTE]
Medal of Honor - Wikipedia
CMOHS.org - History of the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor Award Descriptions and History
Marine Corps - Medal of Honor Recipients - U.S. Military Awards for Valor - Top 3