He more recently said a civilian award is, ‘better than the Medal of Honor.’
That’s an old bit of dark humor that has been around a long, long time.
My father earned the Navy Cross in WWII for his valor on D Day. When I was a child, it was explained to me that this award was second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. But my siblings assured me that we should be glad he didn’t get one of those, because he’d probably have died on the battlefield and we kids would not have been born.