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Pentagon Looks to Rescind 20 Medal of Honor Awards Given to Soldiers in the 1890s
GP ^ | 07/25/24 | Anthony Scott

Posted on 07/25/2024 3:28:46 PM PDT by Enlightened1

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered the Department of Defense to review the Medal of Honor awarded to 20 soldiers for their actions in the Wounded Knee Massacre that took place in 1890.

Austin wrote in a memo, “The [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient’s individual actions.”

In a separate statement, a senior defense official shared, “It’s never too late to do what’s right.”

The official added, “And that’s what is intended by the review that the secretary directed, which is to ensure that we go back and review each of these medals in a rigorous and individualized manner to understand the actions of the individual in the context of the overall engagement.”

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3848583/austin-orders-review-of-wounded-knee-medals/

 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has directed the Defense Department to review the Medals of Honor awarded to approximately 20 soldiers for their actions during the December 1890 engagement at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, to ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation’s highest military honor.

DOD’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness will convene a special review panel to conduct an individualized assessment based on standards in effect during that period.

The scope of the panel’s review is limited to examining each Medal of Honor awardee’ s individual actions during the engagement at Wounded Knee Creek. However, “The [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient’s individual actions,” Austin wrote in a memorandum directing the review, which was released today.

Austin signed the memorandum last week following department consultation with the White House and Department of the Interior.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/lloyd-austin-pentagon-dod/2024/07/25/id/1173950/

 

On December 29, 1890, the 7th U.S. Calvary Regiment arrested members of the Lakota tribe for violating a government ban on a Native American spiritual ritual called “Ghost Dancing.”

Once arrested, soldiers held them at a camp near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.

As soldiers attempted to disarm members of the Lakota Tribe, a gun was accidentally discharged, and U.S. soldiers opened fire.

A battle quickly ensued, resulting in more than 250 Lakota tribe members being killed.

Twenty-five U.S. soldiers were also killed in the engagement.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Military/Veterans; Miscellaneous; Politics
KEYWORDS: aidandcomfort; awards; chickenshtt; communism; courtmartialaustin; culturewar; dodsedition; ghostdance; ghostdancing; godsgravesglyphs; gowokegetcroaked; honor; lakota; lloydaustin; marxism; medal; medalofhonor; moh; nativeamericans; pentagon; recind; revisionism; woke; wokemilitary; woundedknee; woundedkneecreek
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To: lastchance

Exactly.

The elites got all Shawnee lands by selling whiskey against the Shawnee leaders’ wishes like today fentanyl is sold. They sent delegations to the US capitol asking for a stop to be put to the trade in whiskey, but to no avail. The weak new government couldn’t have stopped it.

Their young warriors got hooked on the stuff then would go out and commit violence, which inevitably caused a backlash by settlers against all Shawnee, not just the guilty parties.


21 posted on 07/25/2024 3:51:41 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Exactly.


22 posted on 07/25/2024 3:53:37 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: falcon99
This is one case where “woke BS” is almost certainly correct.

I always use the massacre at Wounded Knee to make the point that the Second Amendment is NOT intended to protect the right to own small arms and hunting rifles, but to ensure that people can defend themselves from their own government.

To this day, the Wounded Knee massacre remains the largest “mass shooting” in American history.

23 posted on 07/25/2024 3:54:05 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Ain't it funny how the night moves … when you just don't seem to have as much to lose.”)
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To: Reno89519

That’s right, erasing history is what commies and the Taliban did and do.


24 posted on 07/25/2024 3:57:53 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Enlightened1

Trump should order any Medal of Honor recipient who came out as communist to have their medal revoked. All of them - including Kennedy Honors, presidential medals, etc


25 posted on 07/25/2024 3:58:03 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: All

I’m glad that no one wants to join the military anymore.


26 posted on 07/25/2024 4:00:07 PM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: Dave Wright

There’s a bigger issue in this particular case. Even if the mission was justified beyond any question, there was always a heap of criticism over the award of 20 Medals of Honor in such a limited military engagement. There’s was never much of a doubt that the military was handing those medals out like candy — probably has part of a PR campaign to make the “battle” sound like something it really wasn’t.


27 posted on 07/25/2024 4:00:11 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Ain't it funny how the night moves … when you just don't seem to have as much to lose.”)
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To: wally_bert

He’s not only White, he’s from Idaho!


28 posted on 07/25/2024 4:00:14 PM PDT by kiryandil (FR Democrat Party operatives! Rally in defense of your Colombian cartel stooge Merchan!)
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To: Enlightened1

That black guy (Biden’s words not mine) needs to go.


29 posted on 07/25/2024 4:00:18 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: Enlightened1

rewriting history

the left can’t help itself


30 posted on 07/25/2024 4:01:07 PM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: Enlightened1

He must have a lot of time on his hands.


31 posted on 07/25/2024 4:03:10 PM PDT by roving (Deplorable Erectionists Listless Vessel )
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To: Enlightened1
Wounded Knee was a blot on American history. However, rescinding medals awarded to long dead soldiers won't change what happened. In true Pentagon fashion, the soldiers who participated are being (posthumously) punished while the generals and politicians that issued the orders get off scot-free.
32 posted on 07/25/2024 4:05:20 PM PDT by nuke_road_warrior (Making the world safe for nuclear power for over 20 years)
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To: Enlightened1

The communists never never, never relent on their unstoppable acquisition of every possible control over their subjects...

One of the keys to perpetuating their power & control is the revision, distortion, and/or elimination of prior history that does not conform to their guiding totalitarian principles...

This Wounded Knee exercise is a classic example...
Many others would include:
- Renaming dozens of military facilities...
- Renaming schools, national monuments, and federal buildings...
- Trump inflation has now determined to have been huge...
- Border crossings under Trump were far higher than the near-zero under the biden-obama regime...
- Trump was not hit by a bullet...
- etc... etc... etc...
-


33 posted on 07/25/2024 4:07:08 PM PDT by SuperLuminal ( Where is Samuel Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: Enlightened1

This is what hate looks like.


34 posted on 07/25/2024 4:08:18 PM PDT by The Free Engineer
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To: Alberta's Child

The medal of honor had very different standards in the 1800s than it does today where it has been elevated to a near religious cult status. It’s wrong to resend medals that were issued under the rules and standards of that day. Not every medal has had consistent standards. The Purple Heart originated as a bravery medal. Today it’s issued for a scratch as long as it came from enemy fire. Actually, you don’t even have to be scratched, an IED or drone can blow up 150 yards from you and you can get awarded one for concussion.

You seem to be making a mistake of trying to view those awards through the lens of the convoluted and extremist vetting system used today which includes political and moral life examinations.


35 posted on 07/25/2024 4:10:16 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: Enlightened1

It was a very different time, but they should have never been awarded the MOH in the first place.


36 posted on 07/25/2024 4:10:54 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants ("Gays for Gaza is like Chickens for KFC"- B. Netnyahu )
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To: Enlightened1

There has to be a Statute of Limitations on these things. Otherwise, nothing has any permanence, and it all winds up like a superhero movie where heroes jump timelines and change the past.

O.J. Simpson is in the NFL Hall of Fame. He should stay there.

Ty Cobb is in the MLB Hall of Fame. He should stay there.


37 posted on 07/25/2024 4:11:18 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: Ex-Episcopalian

And the Indians apparently came from Siberia, in Eurasia.


38 posted on 07/25/2024 4:11:27 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14/12 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15/12 - 1030am - Obama team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: Enlightened1

Alternate view of Wounded Knee. A hard to find report.

“Little Bat” at Wounded knee....
“Little Bat’s” last prominent field service was in connection with the Sioux campaign of 1890-91. When Big Foot’s band was corralled at Wounded Knee creek by the Seventh cavalry he doubted the sincerity of the Indians, who had promised to surrender formally on the following day. He told Colonel Forsyth of his fears. The night passed without incident. With the break of day the camps of the troopers and soldiers were astir. Breakfast over, an order was issued that the redskins surrender their arms. This they refused or at least did not do. Thereupon they were commanded to stand in line and submit to a thorough search, as it was “Little Bat’s” belief that the weapons were concealed beneath the folds of the savages’ blankets.
The search had not begun when a medicine man, an aged rascal freshly painted for trouble, slipped before the lines of Indians and those of the soldiers. He began a chant which was full of meaning to “Little Bat.” It was the Sioux’s death song. That a tragedy was at hand there could be no doubt in the mind of this seasoned scout.
In vain did he try to catch the eye of his colonel, who was at the extreme end of one line. Suddenly the medicine man stooped, picked up a handful of snow and sand and flung it high in the air, at the same time ceasing his chant with a shrill cry.
“Look out!” yelled “Little Bat” to the soldiers, but before they could raise their carbines a murderous fire was turned upon them from the two columns of savages. For a moment or more the troopers were in a panic. They knew not which way to turn, so sudden was the attack. But the tide of battle was quick to turn and within thirty minutes over 200 dead and wounded Indians lay upon the field. Of the troopers thirty-five, including brave Captain Wallace, were killed outright and twice as many more were disabled—an awful penalty to pay for attaching so little importance to the suspicions of so experienced a scout as “Little Bat.” Garnier got out of the cross-fire of troops and savages by crawling on his hands and knees to an elevation where a four-inch gun was planted. Here he lay pumping his Winchester into the Indians as they fled for cover in the draws of the hills.
Since the campaign of 1890 the scout has been a familiar figure about Crawford, Chadron, Hay Springs and Oelrichs. He seldom got farther east than Valentine, which is near the Rosebud reservation. The meager press reports of his death show that he was slain by a saloon manager or bouncer. It may have been brought about by a quarrel over monte. “Little Bat” enjoyed the confidence of Generals Crook, Terry, Carr, Merritt and Miles and next to Frank Grouard was the foremost scout in the army. He was not a relative of Baptiste Pourier, who is known as “Big Bat” and who enjoys some distinction as a scout.
Source: Omaha Daily Bee, (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/.../1900.../ed-1/seq-14/) accessed 21 Sep 2014.


39 posted on 07/25/2024 4:12:19 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( Government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is force!--G. Washington)
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To: Enlightened1

China and Russia are flying over Alaska.. and this is what they are worried about


40 posted on 07/25/2024 4:13:03 PM PDT by bike800
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