Long Valley advocate. (Lardo, Idaho) 1904-1907, 1907-05-09
HOW THE MEDAL OF HONOR IS
AWARDED.
Decoration in American Army Core
spends to Victoria Cross of Eng
land and Famous Iron Cross
of Germany.

ing second to none, it is strange fact
that few of them know of the media
of honor, the greatest decoration thai
can be bestowed upon a soldier in the
United States army Every British
subject knows the meaning of wearing
the Victoria cross; every German
knows what it is for a soldier in the
ka1sers army to possess the iron cross
and while both of these decorations
represent bravery, they do not neces.
sarily mean as much as does the pos.
session of the medal of honor.
Regarding the granting of the medal
of honor the Army Register says:
In order that the medal OF honor
may be awarded, officers and enlisted
men must perform in action deeds of
most distinguished personal bravery
or self-sacrifice above and beyond the
call of duty, so conspicuous as clearly
TO distinguish them for gallantry and In.
trepidity above their comrades, involv
ing risk of life or the performance of
more than ordinarily hazardous serv-
ice, and the omission of which would
NV justly OubJCCt lbC POI oOn " OOh
sure as for shortening or failure in
the performance of his duty. The rec
ommendation for the medal will be
judged by this standard of extraordi-
nary merit, and incontestable proof
of the performance of the service will
be exacted."
At the present time there are only
Cd officers and enlisted men in our
army who possess the congressional
medal When it is taken into consid-
GRAFTON that the maximum strength
of the army is 66,3S5, it shows how
hard it is to win the medal of honor.
Less than one in every 1000 possess
1T. OF those who have been awarded
the decoration, 46 are now officers on
the active list, out of $500 in the serv-
ice. There are now on both the active
and retired lists 100 whose deeds of
gallantry have been recognized by the
granting of the medal. The awarding
including days of the civil war, Indian
campaigns, the Spanish-American war,
the Philippine instruction and the
Boxer trouble in China. During the
numerous engagements hundreds of
gallant deeds, which would have
brought the medal of bravery in for
eign armies, went entirely unnoticed
unlike the foreigner, tie American sol
der does not do an act of bravery sim
ply to try and win the medal. Hun
dreds of British soldiers have lost their |
lives in vain effort to obtain the Vic |
tor-a cross. Such no doubt was the |
case when Lord Roberts son was
killed in South Africa in an effort to
save battery.
1t is nearly always the young officer
who performs the gallant deed. Out
Of liz officers who have won the med
al for bravery II of them were under
The rank of captain at the time of per-
orming the act of gallantry which won
hem the decoration. Nearly all of the
others were young captains, although
low and then name appears on the
list showing the possessor was a field
,r staff officer, but in nearly every
Sc he belonged to the volunteers and
leld a high rank at a young age.
The youngest officer who was ever
warded the decoration is now the
enior officer of the army, Lieut.. Gen.
-rthur Macarthur. For bravery when
g was Is years of age he won the COW
ted medal. 1t was at the time he was
boy adjutant of the Twenty-fourth
1isconsin infantry when his regiment
as charging up Missionary Ridge.
he color sergeant became exhausted
I'd went dov :, when Macarthur picked
, the flag, ran to the head of the regi-