Comments by "Evan" (@MrEvanfriend) on "Beyond Bravery: The Ultimate Sacrifice for the Medal of Honor" video.

  1. First, there have been a grand total of zero Medal of Honor "winners". It's not a contest, and the medal is generally awarded for the worst - and more often than not the last - day in the recipient's life. Second, most Medals of Honor from before WWI are, at best, suspect. Before WWI, the medal was awarded for any number of things that might get you a Letter of Commendation today. A number of them were awarded for non-combat actions. This is not to say that EVERY Medal of Honor from the pre-WWI era is bullshit, several were awarded to actual heroes for actually heroic acts...but those were a minority (see the examples in the video). On another note, I recently had the honor to meet an actual Medal of Honor recipient, a fellow Marine who fought in Vietnam. I asked him if I could take a picture with him, and he allowed it. He offered me a coin. Now, I've always been of the opinion that challenge coins are kinda gay, and the only one I owned was given to me and every other Marine in my battalion in Iraq. But when a little old man who is an absolute giant despite standing several inches shorter than my own 5'7 frame offers you a coin, you graciously accept it, as I did. I'm not ever parting with that memento of the time I met the kind of Marine who I've always idolized.
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