Didn’t see it mentioned but a CMH recipient can not be dishonerably discharged from the service no matter what the charge is.
I'm just gonna jump right in and sort of sound off...so pardon the rant, or not..
One of the things that has most annoyed me about Obama has been the politicization of the MoH, as he's upgraded several DCS's from WW II. In no way am I questioning the valor or courage of those heroes, just that revisiting events from so long ago, after the facta isn't warranted, and causes major problems.
If we're going to look back, then we should also be willing to do the following:
]1. Almost half of MoH's were awarded during the Civil War, and nearly 90% of those were handed out to staff officers who never saw combat. Those names should be scrubbed from the list. Most of those went to living recipients, whereas the majority of those awarded in WW I, WW II, Korea, and Vietnam were posthumous.
At the start of WW II, when the military was still recovering from the shock and devastation of Pearly Harbor, the Navy handed out MoHs and Navy Crosses to any sub commander who completed a patrol and managed to sink an enemy vessel. Again...these standards are not compatible with what we have come to accept, and understand now, the true meaning, value, and significance of the award.
Happily, during the recent wars...Iraq I, Iraq II, and Afghanistan, casualties are far, far less, than in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam. As a former junior Marine officer, I've read closely many of the citations that accompanied the awards of the Navy Cross to Marines in these conflicts, and a great many of them easily compare favorably with MoH awards to Marines in earlier conflicts. The main difference..these NC recipients were still alive. There is so much politics going on inside the Pentagon these last 25 years, I feel they were almost loath to make an MoH award unless it was posthumous.
We've all read about the now aborted attempt to award a combat medal to drone operators. The mere fact that such a STUPID idea could come out of the Pentagon shows just how badly that place needs to be hosed out, top to bottom.
During WW II, when there were some 14,000,000 American in uniform, the total number of flag officers was some 40% LESS than there is today, where we have just over 2,000,000 active duty and reserve personnel..think about it..a lot MORE chiefs..a whole lot FEWER Indians.
I wonder if it is now time for Congress, which authorizes the Medal, to consider legislation that would end the practice of considering upgrading awards to the MoH after say, 10 years after the event.