Editorial: Speed medal awards

[unhappycamper]

Editorial: Speed medal awards

Two years to the day of the battle that ended Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith’s life, President Bush presented his family with the Medal of Honor.

It was a fitting tribute for a man who gave his life to save 100 fellow soldiers through a swift counterattack against an Iraqi Republican Guard force during the seizure of Saddam International Airport. Smith’s was the first Medal of Honor of the Iraq war.

It took almost 33 months for the family of Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, killed in Iraq after diving on a grenade to save his buddies, to receive the Medal of Honor he so clearly deserved. For the family of Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL killed during a heavy firefight on a mountaintop in Afghanistan, the wait was 28 months.

For the family of Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who died after smothering an enemy grenade with his body during intense house-to-house fighting in Fallujah, the wait is 38 months and counting.

If such delays were restricted solely to the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for combat heroism, they might be explained. Sadly, that’s not the case.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/community/opinion/marine_editorial_awards_080211/