There is ONE Medal of Honor. Only 3,555 have ever been given to 3,536 recipients. (Nineteen servicemembers received two.) There are only 65 living recipients. Most recipients lost their lives protecting their brothers while fighting to defend our Nation. Today a fat, orange, draft dodger presented something called the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to people who successfully did their jobs. Though admirable, that just doesn’t cut it.
Apparently, this award is not entirely new as there have been “more than 30” Space Medal of Honor recipients since Congress approved the award in 1969. Neil Armstrong and John Glenn were the first to be awarded the medal. Later recipients included the crews of Apollo 1, the Space Shuttle Challenger, and the Space Shuttle Columbia, who died in the line of duty. God Bless them.
The actual Medal of Honor, however is different. You don’t earn the MOH for simply doing your job. It is not given for fulfilling an assigned mission or dying while engaging the enemy. Well over a million Americans have died in war since 1775, few earned the honor. To die is not enough. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society explains that an individual must go “beyond the call” to meet the narrow definition of “intrepidity” required for the MOH.
The individual must voluntarily put themselves at risk and perform an act of “personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous that failing to do so would not incur any just criticism.” It requires that they put their life in “imminent, extreme peril with full awareness of the danger.”
Our President is a little man in a big body. He tries to diminish anything he can’t have himself. Today’s event was just another opportunity for self-promotion, and it shouldn’t resemble or be confused with a real Medal of Honor ceremony. Perhaps Jeff Bezos and William Shatner should get the next ‘Space Medal.’ To the Artemis II Crew, glad they’re home safe, and good job, but the actual Medal of Honor is in a class by itself.
