I have often bemoaned the dearth of Medals of Honor awarded to our heroes of our most recent—and still ongoing— wars: Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, I will not complain if the hands of Congress and of the U.S. Army reach back almost 150 years to recognize and honor military valor and heroism.
That is exactly what is happening in Congress. The names of two Civil War heroes have been included in the annual defense authorization bill—“along with such futuristic initiatives as the Joint Strike Fighter,” the F-35.
According to the Army Times, 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing, who died in on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pvt. John Sipe, who also fought in the Civil War, Chaplain (Capt.) Emil Kapaun, a prisoner of war in Korea and Spec. 4 Robert Towles, a Vietnam War hero, have all been included in the annual defense policy bill, qualifying them to be considered for the Medal of Honor.
How can this be, you ask, so many years—a century-and-a-half in the case of Cushing and Sipe—after they performed their heroic acts.
Well, the Army Times explains, while each military service has a time limit to submit heroes for the Medal of Honor (two years after the action for which they are nominated for the Army and Air Force and three years for the Navy and Marine Corps), Congress can approve an extension and, in fact, each year lawmakers submit the names of service members “for inclusion in the annual defense policy bill rather than as individual pieces of legislation, in hopes of winning easier approval.”
However, such authorization to exceed the time limits through inclusion doesn’t mean a service member is “a shoo-in to receive the Medal of Honor.”
According to Doug Sterner, a Vietnam Veteran who maintains the Hall of Valor website, in many cases the service members are not approved to receive the Medal, “it’s rare that the services go through their case and actually end up awarding.”
However, according to the Times, Civil War hero Cushing might be one of those rare cases; the Union officer’s recommendation for the Medal of Honor came from Army Secretary John McHugh:
Cushing died July 3, 1863, after succumbing to wounds suffered when a piece of shrapnel tore through his abdomen during Pickett’s Charge at Cemetery Ridge. The 22-year-old was left holding his intestines inside his body but refused to leave the battlefield and continued issuing orders to his artillery unit, helping to repel the Confederate attack before he died.
A 90-year-old historian, along with the help of an Air Force officer, took up Cushing’s case to receive the Medal of Honor. Eventually Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., presented Cushing’s case to McHugh.
Another “high-profile” candidate is Chaplain (Capt.) Emil Kapaun:
The Army chaplain dragged soldiers to safety in the Korean War’s Battle of Unsan before later being taken prisoner. He continued to support fellow prisoners of war for seven months until he died May 23, 1952. Kapaun is also being considered for sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church
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Thought you might like to know.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.