In the past I have talked about William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and his Medal of Honor. It is significant, because he was awarded this medal for heroism, as a civilian contractor. What is not talked about though, are the other 7 civilians that were the recipients of this medal, to include the only female recipient Dr. Mary Walker.
Mary’s medal is the reason why Buffalo Bill and the other civilians were able to retain their Medal’s of Honor after the Purge of 1917. This purge was an effort to thin out the ranks of the MoH and make it a purely military honor. It was also designed to take away medals from individuals that did not receive the medal for heroism. Basically, they wanted to make the medal more exclusive.
But what is interesting here is that all of these civilian medal recipients mentioned below were purged from the list back in 1917, not because of a lack of heroism, but because they were not military. But then along came Mary….. As soon as it was determined that Mary and company could not wear the medal any more, of course that caused a backlash. Mary would purposely wear the medal out of defiance of the ruling, all the way up until her death.
What happened after her death is that her family fought for the medal to be restored, and for sixty years this battle continued. In 1977, these efforts caught the attention of President Carter and he restored her medal posthumously. It is that event that that led to the other 7 civilians having their MoH restored. So that is a big thanks to Dr. Walker and President Carter. Although I am sure he did not intend for his actions to legitimize the heroic acts of contractors during times of war, and I think he was thinking more in terms of women’s equality. lol
The other interesting part of this history are the civilians who were working for the navy that received the MoH. They were boat pilots it sounds like, and this was during the Civil War. They were not privateers, but they were still working as civilians and were awarded the medal for heroism. Although there is not much on this history, so I really cannot add much there.
Finally, the guys I really like on this list, were the scouts. These folks were crucial to the Army mission during the years of brutal warfare in the wild west. There were other famous scouts from that time period like Frederick Russell Burnham, but it is these four scouts below that were recognized by the government for their heroism in battle.
I often wonder if congress would ever consider including civilians once again for the MoH? In this current war, there are numerous acts of gallantry and sacrifice that were performed by contractors, and yet their act goes unnoticed? Contractor use in this war far surpasses the use of contractors in US history, with over 2500 plus killed and thousands wounded. Yet there has been very little recognition of the heroes in this group (250,000 plus contractors serve in the war zones). Of course there have been a handful of Defense of Freedom Medals given out, but that is it.
Of course some would say that contractors get their reward in the from of monetary payment. But so does the US military, and so does all of it’s partners. What I am talking about are recognizing an individual’s sacrifice and efforts during times of war, despite if they are military or civilian. I celebrate our military heroes, and I would like to celebrate our civilian heroes as well. But no one knows about those civilian heroes, because they have not been recognized for their efforts.-Matt
Restoration of 6 Awards Previously Purged From TheRoll Of Honor
From Home of Heroes website.
There was no intent on the part of the 5 retired generals that reviewed all prior awards of the Medal of Honor, to single out any individual or group of individuals from whom to revoke our Nation’s highest award. Certainly the case of the 27th Maine precipitated the review, and as a former commander of the Medal of Honor Legion, General Miles presumably agreed with the Legion’s opposition to the inappropriate awards to that unit. Even so, however, the five generals approached their daunting task with reverence for the award as well as a sensibility to those who had already received the award. (more…)
