Medal of Honor Recipients

I don't like it when people say someone "won" the Medal of Honor, or any other military decoration for that matter. You don't "win" the MoH like you "win" a baseball game, you earn the Medal of Honor, and usually posthumously.

Operation Iraqi Freedom has had fewer Medal of Honor recipients (4) than any other conflict (a story for another day). President Bush honored the actions of PFC Ross McGinnis (since promoted to SPC) and presented his parents, Tom and Romayne McGuiness, with the MoH for their son's actions throwing his body on a grenade tossed into his humvee allowing the four soldiers riding with him to escape. SPC McGuiness was killed instantly; his fellow soldiers in the humvee all survived.

On June 3, 2008, Tom McGinnis, spoke at the Pentagon Hall of Heroes, where his son was inducted. He spoke out in favor of Jim Webb's post 9/11 GI Bill, saying,

"We’ve had the support of hundreds and hundreds of people — family, friends, and strangers that have helped us deal with what we had to go through. And this is a good thing. But our troops when they get home also need our support. They put their lives on the line for us, sometimes for four years, sometimes for two years, sometimes for 20 years. But when they get home, they also need our support. And many of these people were very young when they left home, they put aside their education and went into the service because it’s young people that make up the active army and really do the fighting for us. So we owe them an ability to be able to return home and become a productive part of their society. They need to be able to continue their education where they left off. And so I say thank you to the Senate and House who have helped to pass the new GI bill. Now this GI bill only needs the signature of the President of the United States to become law. And I think it’s time that George Bush can sign this bill and make it law to show his appreciation for the support these loyal youth have given him."

Amen brother. Supporting the troops means really supporting them, and that costs more than simple, inexpensive words. It means helping them through deployments and reunions, providing adequate health care for wounds seen and unseen, sending them into battle with the tools they need to win the fight, and giving them the means to become better educated if they so choose. It's the least - the very, very least - that we can do.

Pass the bill, Mr. President. Do the right thing for the soldiers you lavish with such praise - and spend money on those who have truly earned it.