thedrifter
12-12-06, 01:46 PM
DoD officials reject strict timelines, criteria for awards
By Rick Maze
Marine Corps Times Staff writer
Pentagon officials want service members to perceive a timely and fair process for honoring heroic acts, but they don't want overly defined eligibility rules or hard-and-fast timetables for issuing medals for valor.
"Valor and heroism are subjective concepts. … It will always be a tough judgment call," said Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, as he and other military officials testified before a House subcommittee.
The Dec. 6 hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel panel focused on complaints that the services have become increasingly stingy in handing out awards for valor in comparison with past wars and, when they do issue them, they take too long.
The Defense Department has launched a review of the military awards process that will look at ways to make it move more quickly and apply similar criteria to all of the services. That review, ordered by Congress, is expected to wrap up in June.
"The department recognizes its duty to sustain a credible awards program that is consistent with military tradition and supportive of a strong military ethos," Dominguez said.
But he discouraged direct comparisons of numbers of valor awards from one conflict to another, saying the changing nature of warfare, weaponry and tactics makes such comparisons meaningless. "The events themselves must be reviewed by military leaders, one by one," he said.
What merits Medal of Honor?
Statistics compiled by the subcommittee show the percentage of posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, has changed over time. In World War I, 27 percent of Medals of Honor were posthumous. That climbed to 57 percent for World War II and 71 percent for the Korean War, then dropped to 38 percent for the Vietnam War.
The two Medals of Honor for action in Somalia and the two for valor in Iraq - one to a Marine and one to a soldier - also were posthumous awards.
Two more Medals of Honor under consideration for Marines also would be posthumous awards, which may add to the belief that a service member must die to receive the nation's top honor.
Two decorated Marines, Vietnam veteran Joseph Kinney and Korean War veteran Gerald "Jerry" Jonas, led off the hearing with an indictment of a process that they said is unfair to troops.
Kinney, a North Carolina businessman who is writing a book about modern-day heroes, said he thinks troop morale and public support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be higher if the military gave more awards for valor and did it faster.
"In trying to protect the integrity of the Medal of Honor, we end up diminishing it," Kinney said. "We are losing our capacity to recognize true valor."
Awards for valor should be issued within 30 days if a service member is alive and within seven days of death for those who have been killed so the family will know at burial of the government's recognition, he said. The review process should be limited to people with combat experience, he said, and should include enlisted members.
Jonas, a newspaper columnist from Bucks County, Pa., who has studied differences in awards for valor for troops who jumped on grenades to save their comrades, also said the system is unfair.
"All too often, the award boards subjectively interpret how an individual's actions match up to the rigid criteria for awarding the Medal of Honor," he said. "One board's interpretation … can vary considerably from another's."
His views are colored by his investigation into the treatment of two Marines in Vietnam who, on the same night, jumped on grenades to save fellow Marines. Both survived; one received the Medal of Honor and the other received the Navy Cross six years later.
Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., the subcommittee chairman, said Kinney and Jonas raised valid points. "I am concerned that the military services recently may have introduced, inadvertently, more stringent criteria into the Medal of Honor awards process than has existed in the past," McHugh said.
Rep. Vic Snyder of Arkansas, the panel's ranking Democrat who is likely to become chairman in January when Democrats take control of Congress, said different treatment for people who smother grenades to save others is tough to understand.
A review of military awards appears to show that a service member who dies after covering a grenade is likely to receive a higher award for valor than one who survives, although awards are supposed to be given for the act of heroism, not the result of that act, Snyder said. Dying is not a requirement for receiving any award for valor, military officials said, but the Medal of Honor includes a requirement that a recipient risk his life to save others.
The services oppose a call for strict criteria and timelines, with Dominguez saying a standard timeline wouldn't work.
"Timeliness of the submission and inclusion of all required documentation for the award can be affected by ongoing operations and other mission requirements," he said, although he added that a paperless system for awards might reduce processing time.
"There must be no margin of doubt or possibility of error in awarding this honor," said Brig. Gen. Richard Mills, Marine Corps personnel management division director. "There is no checklist."
Mills said he thinks the Marine Corps and Navy have a "fair and equitable" awards process, but "I realize it is not perfect and that there is always room to improve."
McHugh said the Army has handed out more than 52,000 meritorious Bronze Stars, the Air Force 3,849 and the Navy 1,080 in the war on terrorism. The Marine Corps has issued 1,466, despite having deployed far more people for dangerous ground combat than
By Rick Maze
Marine Corps Times Staff writer
Pentagon officials want service members to perceive a timely and fair process for honoring heroic acts, but they don't want overly defined eligibility rules or hard-and-fast timetables for issuing medals for valor.
"Valor and heroism are subjective concepts. … It will always be a tough judgment call," said Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, as he and other military officials testified before a House subcommittee.
The Dec. 6 hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel panel focused on complaints that the services have become increasingly stingy in handing out awards for valor in comparison with past wars and, when they do issue them, they take too long.
The Defense Department has launched a review of the military awards process that will look at ways to make it move more quickly and apply similar criteria to all of the services. That review, ordered by Congress, is expected to wrap up in June.
"The department recognizes its duty to sustain a credible awards program that is consistent with military tradition and supportive of a strong military ethos," Dominguez said.
But he discouraged direct comparisons of numbers of valor awards from one conflict to another, saying the changing nature of warfare, weaponry and tactics makes such comparisons meaningless. "The events themselves must be reviewed by military leaders, one by one," he said.
What merits Medal of Honor?
Statistics compiled by the subcommittee show the percentage of posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, has changed over time. In World War I, 27 percent of Medals of Honor were posthumous. That climbed to 57 percent for World War II and 71 percent for the Korean War, then dropped to 38 percent for the Vietnam War.
The two Medals of Honor for action in Somalia and the two for valor in Iraq - one to a Marine and one to a soldier - also were posthumous awards.
Two more Medals of Honor under consideration for Marines also would be posthumous awards, which may add to the belief that a service member must die to receive the nation's top honor.
Two decorated Marines, Vietnam veteran Joseph Kinney and Korean War veteran Gerald "Jerry" Jonas, led off the hearing with an indictment of a process that they said is unfair to troops.
Kinney, a North Carolina businessman who is writing a book about modern-day heroes, said he thinks troop morale and public support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be higher if the military gave more awards for valor and did it faster.
"In trying to protect the integrity of the Medal of Honor, we end up diminishing it," Kinney said. "We are losing our capacity to recognize true valor."
Awards for valor should be issued within 30 days if a service member is alive and within seven days of death for those who have been killed so the family will know at burial of the government's recognition, he said. The review process should be limited to people with combat experience, he said, and should include enlisted members.
Jonas, a newspaper columnist from Bucks County, Pa., who has studied differences in awards for valor for troops who jumped on grenades to save their comrades, also said the system is unfair.
"All too often, the award boards subjectively interpret how an individual's actions match up to the rigid criteria for awarding the Medal of Honor," he said. "One board's interpretation … can vary considerably from another's."
His views are colored by his investigation into the treatment of two Marines in Vietnam who, on the same night, jumped on grenades to save fellow Marines. Both survived; one received the Medal of Honor and the other received the Navy Cross six years later.
Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., the subcommittee chairman, said Kinney and Jonas raised valid points. "I am concerned that the military services recently may have introduced, inadvertently, more stringent criteria into the Medal of Honor awards process than has existed in the past," McHugh said.
Rep. Vic Snyder of Arkansas, the panel's ranking Democrat who is likely to become chairman in January when Democrats take control of Congress, said different treatment for people who smother grenades to save others is tough to understand.
A review of military awards appears to show that a service member who dies after covering a grenade is likely to receive a higher award for valor than one who survives, although awards are supposed to be given for the act of heroism, not the result of that act, Snyder said. Dying is not a requirement for receiving any award for valor, military officials said, but the Medal of Honor includes a requirement that a recipient risk his life to save others.
The services oppose a call for strict criteria and timelines, with Dominguez saying a standard timeline wouldn't work.
"Timeliness of the submission and inclusion of all required documentation for the award can be affected by ongoing operations and other mission requirements," he said, although he added that a paperless system for awards might reduce processing time.
"There must be no margin of doubt or possibility of error in awarding this honor," said Brig. Gen. Richard Mills, Marine Corps personnel management division director. "There is no checklist."
Mills said he thinks the Marine Corps and Navy have a "fair and equitable" awards process, but "I realize it is not perfect and that there is always room to improve."
McHugh said the Army has handed out more than 52,000 meritorious Bronze Stars, the Air Force 3,849 and the Navy 1,080 in the war on terrorism. The Marine Corps has issued 1,466, despite having deployed far more people for dangerous ground combat than