In a rare and historical action, President Obama will award the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest commendation for combat valor, to 19 Jewish, Hispanic, and African-American veterans “overlooked previously because of their ethnicity,” according to the Washington Post.
Unprecedented and historical, in my opinion, because it reaches back more than 60 years to correct acts of discrimination.
All the way to May 27 and 28 1944, when Private First Class Salvador J. Lara, one of the seven World War II Medal of Honor recipients, earned the Medal “for his courageous actions while serving as the Squad Leader of a rifle squad with 2d Platoon, Company L, 180th Infantry, 45th Infantry Division during combat operations against an armed enemy in Aprilia, Italy.”
The 19 recipients served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Rare, because this upcoming award ceremony at the White House “will mark the largest batch of Medal of Honor recipients since World War II, when more than two dozen service members were honored in the conflict’s last days.”
The unusual presentation will culminate a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress into past discrimination in the ranks, and will hold a particular poignancy hosted by the nation’s first African-American president.
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The unusual historical accounting began in 2002 when Congress, as part of the defense spending bill, ordered the Pentagon to look into whether Jewish and Hispanic service members had been passed over unfairly for the nation’s highest military honor.
Defense Department officials said there was specific evidence to suggest such discrimination may have existed in the ranks, including instances when Hispanic and Jewish soldiers apparently changed their names to hide their ethnicity. The Congressional order spanned the period from December 1941 through September 2001.
The Post describes the project as “an enormous undertaking that sent military personnel officials searching for lost records and battlefield histories amid the complicated politics surrounding the military’s highest honor.” One of those problems was the fact that, in 1973, a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Mo., destroyed “as many as 18 million military personnel files. Among those were army service records from 1912 through 1960, a period that included World War II and Korea. The Air Force lost most of its personnel files from 1947 though 1964.”
The soldiers to be awarded the Medal of Honor include:
Hispanic soldier Santiago J. Erevia, a former specialist four who served in Vietnam as a radio telephone operator in Company C, 1st Battalion (Airmobile), 501st Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division.
He will receive the Medal of Honor at the March 18 ceremony at the White House for “courageous actions” during a search-and-clear mission near Tam Ky, Vietnam.
Jewish former Private First Class Leonard M. Kravitz, who will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions in early March 1951, while serving as an assistant machine-gunner with Company M, 5th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division. “His actions in combat over two days in Yangpyong, Korea, were deemed worthy of the highest honor.”
The Post notes that the initial Congressional order “did not include black service members for reassessment.” However, the legislation was later amended “to allow others worthy of an upgraded commendation — not just Hispanic and Jewish service members — to receive one.”
Thus, one African-American veteran, Staff Sergeant Melvin Morris will receive the Medal of Honor “for his courageous actions while serving as Commander of a Strike Force drawn from Company D, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, during combat operations against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Chi Lang, Republic of Vietnam on September 17, 1969.”
Read the complete list of overlooked Medal of Honor recipients here
CODA:
The 19 servicemen discussed above will be part of 24 Army veterans who will be awarded the Medal of Honor on March 18th, 2014, at the White House
The White House explains:
In 2002, Congress, through the Defense Authorization Act, called for a review of Jewish American and Hispanic American veteran war records from WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, to ensure those deserving the Medal of Honor were not denied because of prejudice. During the review, records of several Soldiers of neither Jewish nor Hispanic descent were also found to display criteria worthy of the Medal of Honor. The 2002 Act was amended to allow these Soldiers to be honored with the upgrade – in addition to the Jewish and Hispanic American Soldiers.
The names and actions of all 24 men can be read here.
