thedrifter
06-17-09, 08:24 AM
MILITARY: Technology cited for low number of Medal of Honor winners
By MARK WALKER - mlwalker@nctimes.com
Is high-tech warfare making combat safer and leading to fewer Medal of Honor winners from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
That's the suggestion of a Defense Department official in a letter to Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-El Cajon, who says there are more deserving troops from America's current conflicts than the five who have won the honor.
Gail McGinn, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote Hunter a letter earlier this month suggesting electronic warfare may be one reason why only a handful of U.S. troops have been awarded the nation's highest military award for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Technological advancements have dramatically changed battlefield tactics, techniques and procedures," McGinn wrote in the letter released by Hunter's office. "Precision-guided, stand-off weapons allow our forces to destroy known enemy positions with reduced personnel risk."
Hunter said Tuesday he was dissatisfied with that reasoning. He wants a congressionally mandated review of how the Medal of Honor award has been bestowed in recent years.
"It's true that some aspects of warfare have changed," he said. "But what hasn't changed is the close-quarter combat that is required to take ground from the enemy. That is what our Marines and soldiers do. Those actions are no different today than they were at any other time before."
McGinn also wrote that insurgents often rely on roadside bombs and rocket or mortar attacks and avoid direct engagement with U.S. forces.
"These factors could reasonably explain the smaller number of Medal of Honor nominations," she wrote.
Hunter, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as a Marine Corps officer, cited house-to-house combat in Iraq and foot patrols in isolated areas of Afghanistan as examples of close-quarters fighting using traditional weaponry.
The freshman congressman wants the Defense Department to formally survey military commanders to determine whether acts of valor are being downgraded and whether a bias exists that has the award now going only to those who are killed in action.
The Pentagon may be employing "unnecessary requirements" when determining the honor, Hunter said. The Vietnam War saw 246 troops awarded the Medal of Honor, many of them to men who survived.
Hunter's amendment to a defense spending bill mandates that the Pentagon issue a report on its findings by March 31. The amendment is unopposed, according to his spokesman, Joe Kasper.
A Marine Corps reservist, Hunter, 32, was elected in November to the 52nd Congressional District seat his father formerly held. The district includes portions of Poway and Ramona.
He has repeatedly raised concerns that there are no living Medal of Honor recipients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The five U.S. troops who have been given the award since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq died in the action that led to their medals.
Hunter maintains there are living troops whose acts in Iraq and Afghanistan warrant consideration for the Medal of Honor. Marine 1st Lt. Brian Chontosh is one such example, he says.
During the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Chontosh, then a member of Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, directed a vehicle he was in to provide cover for other troops coming under attack during the assault on Baghdad.
"With complete disregard for his safety, he twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack. ... When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others," the citation accompanying his Navy Cross reads. The Navy Cross is the second-highest award a Marine can receive.
McGuinn disputes the assertion that Medals of Honor are considered only for those killed in battle. A 2008 review, she said, found no written or unwritten evidence of a posthumous requirement.
Last month, Hunter pressed the issue with Army Gen. George Casey, telling the Army chief of staff that he believes defense officials have "hijacked" the process for granting the medal. That process includes multiple levels of review and then a nomination by the head of a nominee's branch of service. Members of Congress also can nominate someone on their own, a rarely employed practice.
Hunter also continues to press the case of Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta of San Diego, who was awarded a Navy Cross rather than the Medal of Honor.
Peralta was killed in a 2004 assault on a home in Fallujah, Iraq, where his squad mates say they saw him deliberately scoop a grenade to his body to shield the blast.
Despite a nomination from the Marine Corps that he receive the Medal of Honor, a panel of medical experts ruled his movement might have been involuntary, stemming from a head wound. The Pentagon has twice refused to reconsider that ruling, and Hunter has asked the White House to intervene.
Hunter has said he believes that the criteria applied in the Peralta case were inconsistent. But McGinn wrote that Defense Secretary Robert Gates made that call on his own after getting reports from five independent reviewers.
Gen. James Conway, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, recently said there is a living service member on the West Coast who may be nominated for the Medal of Honor. Conway did not identify who he had in mind, and service officials have not publicly named anyone under consideration.
The medal has been awarded to 3,464 men and one woman since it was established into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Call staff writer Mark Walker at 760-740-3529.
Ellie
By MARK WALKER - mlwalker@nctimes.com
Is high-tech warfare making combat safer and leading to fewer Medal of Honor winners from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
That's the suggestion of a Defense Department official in a letter to Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-El Cajon, who says there are more deserving troops from America's current conflicts than the five who have won the honor.
Gail McGinn, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote Hunter a letter earlier this month suggesting electronic warfare may be one reason why only a handful of U.S. troops have been awarded the nation's highest military award for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Technological advancements have dramatically changed battlefield tactics, techniques and procedures," McGinn wrote in the letter released by Hunter's office. "Precision-guided, stand-off weapons allow our forces to destroy known enemy positions with reduced personnel risk."
Hunter said Tuesday he was dissatisfied with that reasoning. He wants a congressionally mandated review of how the Medal of Honor award has been bestowed in recent years.
"It's true that some aspects of warfare have changed," he said. "But what hasn't changed is the close-quarter combat that is required to take ground from the enemy. That is what our Marines and soldiers do. Those actions are no different today than they were at any other time before."
McGinn also wrote that insurgents often rely on roadside bombs and rocket or mortar attacks and avoid direct engagement with U.S. forces.
"These factors could reasonably explain the smaller number of Medal of Honor nominations," she wrote.
Hunter, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as a Marine Corps officer, cited house-to-house combat in Iraq and foot patrols in isolated areas of Afghanistan as examples of close-quarters fighting using traditional weaponry.
The freshman congressman wants the Defense Department to formally survey military commanders to determine whether acts of valor are being downgraded and whether a bias exists that has the award now going only to those who are killed in action.
The Pentagon may be employing "unnecessary requirements" when determining the honor, Hunter said. The Vietnam War saw 246 troops awarded the Medal of Honor, many of them to men who survived.
Hunter's amendment to a defense spending bill mandates that the Pentagon issue a report on its findings by March 31. The amendment is unopposed, according to his spokesman, Joe Kasper.
A Marine Corps reservist, Hunter, 32, was elected in November to the 52nd Congressional District seat his father formerly held. The district includes portions of Poway and Ramona.
He has repeatedly raised concerns that there are no living Medal of Honor recipients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The five U.S. troops who have been given the award since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq died in the action that led to their medals.
Hunter maintains there are living troops whose acts in Iraq and Afghanistan warrant consideration for the Medal of Honor. Marine 1st Lt. Brian Chontosh is one such example, he says.
During the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Chontosh, then a member of Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, directed a vehicle he was in to provide cover for other troops coming under attack during the assault on Baghdad.
"With complete disregard for his safety, he twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack. ... When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others," the citation accompanying his Navy Cross reads. The Navy Cross is the second-highest award a Marine can receive.
McGuinn disputes the assertion that Medals of Honor are considered only for those killed in battle. A 2008 review, she said, found no written or unwritten evidence of a posthumous requirement.
Last month, Hunter pressed the issue with Army Gen. George Casey, telling the Army chief of staff that he believes defense officials have "hijacked" the process for granting the medal. That process includes multiple levels of review and then a nomination by the head of a nominee's branch of service. Members of Congress also can nominate someone on their own, a rarely employed practice.
Hunter also continues to press the case of Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta of San Diego, who was awarded a Navy Cross rather than the Medal of Honor.
Peralta was killed in a 2004 assault on a home in Fallujah, Iraq, where his squad mates say they saw him deliberately scoop a grenade to his body to shield the blast.
Despite a nomination from the Marine Corps that he receive the Medal of Honor, a panel of medical experts ruled his movement might have been involuntary, stemming from a head wound. The Pentagon has twice refused to reconsider that ruling, and Hunter has asked the White House to intervene.
Hunter has said he believes that the criteria applied in the Peralta case were inconsistent. But McGinn wrote that Defense Secretary Robert Gates made that call on his own after getting reports from five independent reviewers.
Gen. James Conway, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, recently said there is a living service member on the West Coast who may be nominated for the Medal of Honor. Conway did not identify who he had in mind, and service officials have not publicly named anyone under consideration.
The medal has been awarded to 3,464 men and one woman since it was established into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Call staff writer Mark Walker at 760-740-3529.
Ellie