Something to read this Memorial Day

It’s been a long week. Should you be in the mood to reflect upon the true meaning of Memorial Day — meaning if you aren’t out drunk water skiing — here is something interesting to read. It is the U.S. Army page on the Medal of Honor. It has the citations for all, not just Army, military personnel who have received the nation’s highest honor since the medal was first awarded for Civil War recipients.

What is interesting to me is that these citations are presented, conflict-by-conflict, telling a history of our country that is surprising. I mean, I never heard of the U.S. punitive expedition to Korea in 1871, also known as Shinmiyangyo, much less that 15 Marines and sailors were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions in that conflict.

Looking at, especially, so-called “interim” periods between wars which produced a number of MOH recipients it seems as if the award didn’t have quite as stringent standards as today. That isn’t to downplay those awarded for saving drowning victims and the like. There are also some whose awards may have been politically-inspired, such as Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt for leading his volunteer Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War. Perhaps also some awards were righting past wrongs such as awarding black and Japanese Americans from World War II.

I still say Dorie Miller, the black messman from Waco, Texas, on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, deserves the Medal of Honor for his action on Dec. 7, 1941. Perhaps Congress will one day do the right thing about this award.