One of my uncles was on a ship docked in Pearl Harbor. His ship was hit by a bomb and he pulled injured people off on many times going back searching the ship while bombing was still happening. He and others stashed injured under upside down life boats on shore. He got a medal, but I don’t know which one.
That’s the frustrating thing about medals. Some who received them didn’t deserve them. And many never received decorations they rightfully earned, either due to ethnicity, lack of witnesses, poor writing, military politics, operating in places we technically aren’t supposed to be, lost paperwork, or in several cases on a day like Pearl Harbor, too much going on to recognize every deserving action.
Despite the flaws in the system, it doesn’t take away from the valor displayed by so many of our military men and women.