MOH) Medal of Honor (MH - Awarding the medal, Authority and privileges, Similar decorations

In the USA, the highest decoration awarded for heroism, instituted in 1861; it is worn on a blue ribbon decorated with white stars.

For the computer and video games, see Medal of Honor series.

Medal of Honor
From left to right, the Army, Navy and Air Force medals
Awarded by the United States of America
Type	Single-grade neck order
Eligibility	Military personnel only
Awarded for	"...a person who, while a member of the Army, distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States..."
Status	Currently awarded
Statistics
First awarded	American Civil War
Last awarded	September 23, 2005
Total awarded	3,461
Posthumous awards	615
Distinct recipients	3,442
Precedence
Next highest	None
Next lowest	Army - Distinguished Service Cross Navy - Navy Cross Air Force - Air Force Cross

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States.

Members of all branches of the U.S. military are eligible to receive the medal, and each service has a unique design (although the Marine Corps uses the Navy's medal and the Coast Guard's version has never been awarded). The Medal of Honor is often presented personally to the recipient or, in the case of posthumous awards, to survivors, by the President of the United States.

The Medal of Honor is one of only two American military awards worn around the neck; Whereas the Medal of Honor is a military award for valor — actions taken during combat operations at risk of one's own life that are above and beyond the call of duty — the Legion of Merit is a merit award. The certificate was later granted medal status as the Certificate of Merit Medal. This measure provided for awarding a Medal of Honor, which the Navy version also came to be called: "to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities, during the present insurrection."

The Coast Guard Medal of Honor, which was distinguished from the Navy medal in 1963, has never been awarded, partly because the U.S. Coast Guard is subsumed into the U.S. Navy in time of declared war. Only one member of the Coast Guard has ever received a Medal of Honor, Signalman 1st Class Douglas Munro, who was awarded the Navy version of the medal for action during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

In the rare cases (19 thus far) where a service member has been awarded more than one Medal of Honor, regulations specify that an appropriate award device be centered on the MOH ribbon and neck medal. To indicate multiple presentations of the Medal of Honor the U.S. Army and Air Force bestow oak leaf clusters, while the Navy Medal of Honor is worn with gold award stars. Bill Kendall of Jefferson, Iowa, who designed a flag to honor Medal of Honor recipient Captain Darrell Lindsey, a B-26 pilot killed in World War II who was also from Jefferson.

The first Medal of Honor recipient to receive the official flag was Paul R.

Awarding the medal

There are two distinct means for awarding the Medal of Honor. Many Medals of Honor awarded in the 19th century were associated with saving the flag, not just for patriotic reasons, but because the flag was a primary means of battlefield communication. During the Civil War, no other military award was authorized, which explains some of the less notable actions that were recognized by the Medal of Honor. In all, 3461 Medals of Honor have been awarded. Due to confusion, Stanton awarded a Medal of Honor to all 864 men in the regiment.

In 1916, a board of five Army generals convened by law to review every Army Medal of Honor awarded. This included the 864 medals awarded to members of the 27th Maine, 29 who served as Abraham Lincoln's funeral guard, six civilians (including Dr Mary Edwards Walker, the only woman to have been awarded the medal, and Buffalo Bill Cody), and 12 others whose awards were judged frivolous.

Early in the 20th century the Navy awarded many Medals of Honor for peacetime bravery. Official accounts vary, but presumably the combat Medal of Honor was known as the "Tiffany Cross", after the company that manufactured the medal. As a result, in 1942 the United States Navy reverted to a single Medal of Honor, awarded only for heroism.

Since the beginning of World War II, the medal has been awarded for extreme bravery beyond the call of duty while engaged in action against an enemy.

Controversies

A 1993 study commissioned by the Army described systematic racial discrimination in the criteria for awarding medals during World War II. At the time, no Medals of Honor had been awarded to black soldiers who served in World War II. A similar study of Asian Americans in 1998 resulted in President Clinton awarding 21 new Medals of Honor in 2000, including 20 to Japanese American members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (one of whom was Senator Daniel Inouye). Bush awarded the Medal of Honor to Jewish veteran and Holocaust-camp survivor Tibor Rubin.

Authority and privileges

The U.S. Army Medal of Honor was first authorized by a joint resolution of Congress on July 12, 1862. The specific authorizing ordinance was U.S. Code, Title 10, Subtitle B, Part II, Chapter 357, Section 3741, effective January 26, 1998:

The President may award, and present in the name of Congress, a medal of honor of appropriate design, with ribbons and appurtenances, to a person who while a member of the Army, distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. In the event of an officer encountering an enlisted member of the military who has been awarded the Medal of Honor, officers by tradition salute not the person, but the medal itself, thus attempting to time their salute to coincide with the enlisted members'.) By law, awardees have several benefits:

Each Medal of Honor awardee may have his or her name entered on the Medal of Honor Roll (38 U.S.C. § 1560). Those awarded the Medal after October 23, 2002 also receive a Medal of Honor Flag. As with all medals, retired personnel may wear the Medal of Honor on "appropriate" civilian clothing. Misuse of the medal, including unauthorized manufacture or wear, is punishable by fine and imprisonment pursuant to (18 U.S.C. § 704)(b), which prescribes a harsher penalty than that for violations concerning other medals. After the Army redesigned their medal in 1903, a patent was issued (United States Patent #D37,236) to legally prevent others from making the medal. They sold medals awarded to U.S. Navy Seaman Robert Blume (for action during the Spanish-American War) and to U.S. Army First Sergeant George Washington Roosevelt (for action during the Civil War) to an FBI agent.

Under United States Code, (18 U.S.C. § 704)(b), it is illegal to wear the Medal of Honor without authorization, but one can still legally claim to be a recipient unless such a claim is made with the intent of securing veteran benefits. HLI Lordship Industries Inc., a former Medal of Honor contractor, was fined in 1996 for selling 300 fake Medals for $75 each. Nineteen men received a second award: 14 of these received two separate Medals for two separate actions, and five received both the Navy and the Army Medals of Honor for the same action. Since the beginning of World War II, 852 Medals of Honor have been awarded, 526 posthumously.

The Army Medal of Honor was first awarded to Private Jacob Parrott during the American Civil War for his role in the Andrews Raid;

While current regulations, (10 U.S.C. § 6241), beginning in 1918, explicitly state that recipients must be serving in the U.S. Armed Forces at the time of performing a valorous act that warrants the award of the Medal of Honor, exceptions have been made. Apart from these few exceptions, Medals of Honor can only be awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces - although being a U.S. citizen is not a prerequisite. Sixty-one Canadians who were serving in the United States armed forces have been awarded the Medal of Honor, with a majority awarded for actions in the American Civil War.

Since the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam in 1973, the Medal of Honor has only been awarded four times, all of them posthumously. Bush announced that Marine Corporal Jason Dunham of Scio, New York, would be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his bravery in Iraq during a combat mission for throwing himself on a grenade during an action near the Syrian border in April 2004.

By conflict

Civil War	1,522	Indian Wars	426
Korean Expedition	15	Spanish-American War	110
Samoan Civil War	4	Philippine-American War	86
Boxer Rebellion	59	Mexican Expedition	56
Haiti (1915-1934)	8	Dominican Republic Occupation	3
World War I	124	Occupation of Nicaragua	2
World War II	464	Korean War	131
Vietnam War	245	Battle of Mogadishu	2
Iraq War	2
Peacetime	193	Unknown or classified	9

By branch of service

Service	Awards
Army	2401
Navy	745
Marines	297
Air Force	17
Coast Guard	1

Similar decorations

United States

The following United States decorations bear similar names to the Medal of Honor, but are separate awards with different criteria for issuance.

Cardenas Medal of Honor: decoration of the Revenue Cutter Service, merged into the United States Coast Guard Chaplain's Medal of Honor: awarded posthumously for a single action to four recipients Congressional Gold Medal of Honor Congressional Space Medal of Honor: despite its name, not equal to the Medal of Honor Presidential Medal of Freedom

Several United States law enforcement decorations also bear the name "Medal of Honor". The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, established by Congress in 2001, "the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer", is also awarded by the President, as is the highest civilian honor of all, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Foreign awards

The following countries have high military awards similar to the Medal of Honor:

Finland: Mannerheim Cross France: Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor) Israel: Medal of Valor Sri Lanka: Parama Weera Vibhushanaya Pakistan: Nishan-e-Haider Malaysia: Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa (S.P.) The Netherlands: Order of William Poland: Virtuti Militari Russian Federation: Hero of the Russian Federation Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Commonwealth: Victoria Cross India: Param Vir Chakra Argentina: The Argentine Nation Cross to the Heroic Valor in Combat (Cruz La Nación Argentina al Heroico Valor en Combate)

The following obsolete military decorations were the highest in their country at the time:

Pour le Mérite (Prussia) Vietnam Military Merit Medal (South Vietnam) Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Nazi Germany) Hero of the Soviet Union (Soviet Union)