Talk:List of Medal of Honor recipients

message: If this list is about recipients of the US Congresional Medal of Honor, why is there a list of foreign Unknowns at the bottom of the page?  Have these countries' Unknown soldiers been granted Medals of Honor by the United States Congress?  It looks to me like someone stumbled upon this unknown section by accident and placed the non-US unknowns there.  I mean no disrespect to these soldiers, but I don't think they belong on this list.  --Jpbrenna 02:44, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: As of a couple months ago, when I re-organized the list into its current form, every one of the entries was checked against the list on the Army's Medal of Honor website. --Carnildo 06:33, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

text: Since the medal has been awarded to 3,409 people, I'd say we're missing a few ;-)  The French "Unknown Soldier" goes to the Arc de Triomphe because that's where the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is. --Carnildo 06:01, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Orphaned comments without a section from 2005

message: I hate to be a nitpick but over 3000 have received the Medal of Honor. Anyone can just list the names but it would be better if those listed also had individual pages. --Dysepsion 04:09, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Quite a while since the above comment was posted, but along these lines I've recently gone through the Korean War section and created pages for the Army and Air Force personnel who didn't have pages yet (the Navy and Marines had already been done). As I was working on these, I was thinking that if I continue into a different era, I'll first create a 'standard template' (lack of better words, it wouldn't be a Wiki template) that I could cut 'n paste for each page/person, then fill in with the citation text and whatever other info was available. But first, I'm thinking it would be better to go back through the Korean War section and see what, if any, additional info could be found for those individuals, and see if maybe a better description of the 'area' (like name of a famous battle or whatever), could be found. Most of the names supplied for the location are pretty meaningless (and probably mis-spelled), so a better geographical reference would be nice. wbfergus 14:12, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Recipient Pages

message: 1LT Baldomero Lopez, USMC needs to be added in Korea.--ProdigySportsman 04:31, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Baldomero Lopez

message: MoH recipient Desmond T. Doss Sr., 87, recently died on March 23 this year. He was the only conscientious objector to receive the medal. I hope no one minds, I notated this in the "notes" section. Rarelibra 19:02, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Regarding Desmond T. Doss Sr.

message: I once sailed on an United States MSC vessel named "PFC James Anderson, Jr."  The vessel was named after a marine who received the medal for actions very similar, almost suspiciously so, to Richard Anderson (rolling onto an enemy grenade).  See http://www.msc.navy.mil/inventory/citations/anderson.htm  That would tell me there are two Andersons who received the Medal of Honor for actions in Vietnam.  Anyone care to update the list?Thedukeofno 11:46, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The external links on the article page go to the complete list of citations. There were, in fact, two Marines named Anderson who recieved the Medal for rolling on a grenade. Please note that the list here is incomplete and is expanded when people like you add to it. Rmhermen 16:14, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Richard Anderson and James Anderson

message: Pym and Thompson are shown as getting their medals for actions on 28 June.  According to Battle of the Little Big Horn, the fighting was 25/26 June and indians retreated on 27 June.  -- Beardo 22:01, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Little Big Horn

message: I came to this article expecting to find someone on it from the Vietnam war (lt col Andre Lucas), but he was not on it, so I added him last night. Crockspot 19:45, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Presuming that this list is incomplete

message: I wrote a page scraper that pulls data from the U.S. Army Center of Military History sites. It's not perfect, the resulting lists need a lot of post-processing. I finished post-processing the Civil War list, and there were a few issues:
*"Elmer E. Ellsworth" was on our list but does not appear on the official Army listing, so I left him out
*"William E. Johnston" was on our list, there was a "Willie Johnston" on the official Army list, but the date/place/notes didn't match up. I left out "William E. Johnston" and kept in "Willie Johnston".
*"Mary E. Walker" was on our list with a single date and place listed, but the Army list gives many dates and places. I put "various" for both date and place.
*This list is huge now, the Civil War list should probably get it's own page and maybe be broken up further
Jwillbur 07:48, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Jwillbur, Nice job.  Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth has an interesting story.  He was one of the first deaths in the war. He was leading a group of men into Alexandria, VA.  He saw a confederate flag at an inn and cut it down.  The innkeeper shot and killed him.  One of his men, Frank Brownell, then killed the innkeeper. Brownell got a Medal of Honor, Ellsworth didn't.  Your list is correct.  Brownell's medal is now at the Smithosonian. Ydorb 17:17, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for clearing it up, Ydorb Jwillbur 19:13, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

text: Bah, I just moved the Civil War list to List of Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, but now I'm thinking it should be at List of Medal of Honor recipients: Civil War A-L and List of Medal of Honor recipients: Civil War M-Z instead. I don't know. Jwillbur 19:23, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Complete Civil War list

message: Indian Wars list is complete. A few issues:
*Henry Hogan - rank for second award was on our old list but not given in citation. Left it out.
*James Pym - discrepency between what was on our old list and the official citation for date and notes. Went with what was on the citation.
*Peter Thompson - discrepency between our old list and citation for the date. Went with date on the citation.
Jwillbur 19:13, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If this website is correct the Indian Wars list is not complete. A veteran by the name of Frank West fought during the Indian Wars. That web site has a list of all Medal of Honor recipients buried Arlington Cemetery. A good resource to cite from. Throw 22:56, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Frank West is on the list, see List of Medal of Honor recipients: Indian Wars. Thanks for the tip about the Arlington site. -- Jwillbur 23:47, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: My mistake. Though he's listed as a Colonel on Arlington Cemetery's website and a First Lieutenant on Wikipedia. Throw 01:20, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No problem. The ranks on this list are the person's rank at the time of thier Medal of Honor action, although that is not made clear on the page. That should be added somewhere, but I'm not sure the best place for it. -- Jwillbur 03:43, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I added it to the opening paragraph. Do you think that's clear enough? Throw 04:40, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Complete Indian Wars list

message: Hey all,
I came upon this list after reading about the Marine who has been awarded the MoH. I am wondering, where's the list of MoH holders for: Grenada, Panama, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and the War on terrorism? - Thanks, Hoshie 01:03, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There weren't any MOH's awarded during those conflicts. Rmhermen 01:13, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, look at Jason Dunham. bahamut0013♠♣ 17:24, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That was awarded two months after the question was asked. Rmhermen (talk) 17:43, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Missing Wars (conflicts)?

message: I know that it can get very confusing, but according to the most thourough ref I've ever seen (http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/war/1_a_main.html), the final numbers are:
A total of 3,464 Medals of Honor have been awarded to 3,445 soldiers and civilians for 3,459 individual actions.
"Medals of Honor have been awarded to 3,464 American Soldiers."
This statement is FALSE for several reasons.  The first is in the actual numbers:
Since it was established in 1862 a total of 3,464 Medals of Honor (Army, Navy/Marine Corps, and Air Force) have been awarded for specific acts of heroism.  During World War I, however, FIVE MARINES received BOTH the Army Medal of Honor and the Navy Medal of Honor for THE SAME ACTION.  This means that there have actually been 3,459 SEPARATE ACTS OF VALOR THAT HAVE BEEN RECOGNIZED WITH A MEDAL OF HONOR AWARD.
Of the 3,459 heroic actions, 14 were performed by men who had previously been awarded Medals of Honor for a different action (these 14 + the 5 World War I Marines comprise the 19 DOUBLE AWARDEES of the Medal of Honor).  When these 14 SECOND ACTIONS by a previous Medal Recipient are subtracted from the total number of Medal of Honor actions, the statement becomes more correct if stated:
"3,464 Medals of Honor have been awarded to 3,445 individual American Soldiers."
There are 2 additional corrections that are required of this final sentence, however.
Of the 3,445 INDIVIDUALS who have received Medals of Honor, FIVE were awarded to FOREIGN NATIONALS (the unknown soldiers of Belgium, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Rumania.)
Eight civilians have received Medals of Honor including Dr. Mary Edwards Walker (the only woman to ever receive the award), one civilian scout and two civilian Naval pilots during the Civil War, and 4 civilian scouts during the Indian Campaigns (including William Cody..."Buffalo Bill").
Add to that the 911 names that were struck from the Honor Roll in 1917, 17 sailors removed, 6 civillians restored, as well as a number of conflicting or incorrect data in the Roll. However, I am willing to trust the assertation that "A total of 3,464 Medals of Honor have been awarded to 3,445 soldiers and civilians for 3,459 individual actions." enough to put it in our encyclopedia. Any thoughts? bahamut0013♠♣ 17:24, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: This is fully discussed and properly sourced in the article on the award itself, Medal of Honor. Rmhermen (talk) 17:45, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

text: Thanks for the work George, but I think there are still only 19 double recipients. The two medals awarded to "Patrick Leonard" during the Indian Wars were actually to two different guys - one to Patrick J. Leonard and one to Patrick T. Leonard. jwillbur 17:31, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: The numbers

message: I had decided it would be good (as some have suggested on this very talk page) to ensure that every MOH recipient has a page of their own. I've put up three new articles, but one (John Mapes Adams) was flagged for speedy deletion within hours. 
Personally, I think that there's no such thing as an obscure MOH recipient, but I'm worried that some of these guys from the pre-WWI days could be ejected because they're just not as heavily documented as the more recent guys.
Anyone have suggestions to combat this?
ChrisClukey (talk) 03:11, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I was under the impression that any MOH recipient is always notable. Every Victoria Cross recipient has a Wikipedia page, even the early ones. ----Ðysepsion † Speak your mind 05:32, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The basic notability guideline is that the subject must have received significant coverage in reliable sources. I've never run across a MOH recipient that hasn't been covered in at least a few sources, although they are definitely harder to find for pre-WWI people than for more recent recipients. A good source to check for Civil War recipients is the Deeds of Valor book (Vol. 1, Vol. 2 (also covers the Indian Wars)). There are also books on MOH recipients by war, by battle, by home state, by branch of service, etc. I've never seen a MOH article get deleted for lack of notability. A few have been flagged, like John Mapes Adams, but they have all been kept. I say you should keep creating articles, and if you are at a loss for sources, feel free to ask here and we'll see what we can find. Happy editing, jwillbur 20:43, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

text: I wouldn't let it bother you, some people have different views of notibility.  I also think that the format you used might have been a factor.  If you use the format on this pageMichael Madden (Medal of Honor recipient) You shouldn't have a problem. Also, there are several references that I use when creating articles for MOH recipients and they are:
* The find a grave website at http://www.findagrave.com/
* The U.S. Army Center for Military History has a complete listing of all the MOH recipients at http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html.
* The Marine Corps Historical Division Who's Who page for USMC MOH recipients at http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Whos_Who.htm.
* MOH recipients buried at Arlington National Cemetery at http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/medalofh.htm.  This is not a public domain website so you can't cut and paste from this site but its a good reference.
* There are a lot of others also and I recommend reviewing the references links on some of the other recipient pages already out there.
Please feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions or run into any problems. Good Luck and Happy editing.--Kumioko (talk) 22:21, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Obscurity concerns

message: 19 heroes have received the award twice. Maybe we should create a list?
Pros of creating that list:
1. It's interesting to readers. When people see that the number of recipients is less than the number of medals handed out, they naturally are curious it.
2. Maybe they should get more recognition--14 had two separate acts of heroism. 
Cons:
1. I could see concern that elevating some recipients could belittle the heroism of the others. 
Thoughts?
Agnamus (talk) 05:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Sure, go for it. There is already a category, :Category:Two-time Medal of Honor recipients, but it only gives their names and we usually don't link to categories from an article, so it would be nice to have a list to link to. There are a few other lists which single out groups of recipients (see List of African American recipients and List of Hispanic recipients, for example), you could use those as a template to start with. jwillbur 14:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Double awardees list?

message: the list is quite silly and repetitive. Can't the main page be used instead?  NPOV-V-NOR 18:52, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: references

message: Anyone know more about this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1418557/US-honours-Briton-in-Afghan-raid.html
Ydorb (talk) 17:12, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: It's probably very inaccurate reporting. He may have been awarded a medal from the United States but it is highly impossible a Briton received the Medal of Honor. Foreign nationals have been awarded the Medal of Honor in the past but they were members of the US military. I believe one of the criteria is that you have to be a member of the the US military. The only non US military that I know of who have received the Medal of Honor are the unknown soldiers. ----Ðysepsion † Speak your mind 17:49, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, Dysepsion is correct. I looked all over and couldn't find anything confirming the award. Not to mention that as the current law stands, the MOH can only go to members of the U.S. military. I found this obituary for the guy in question which states "Despite reports to the contrary no Britons received any foreign awards" and that the guy was "rumoured to have been recommended" for the MOH. An unsubstantiated rumor, it seems. The only other mentions I could find were from blogs, forums, and this oped with says the Telegraph "reported a mere rumour as fact". - jwillbur 18:04, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: And it turns out there was a Reference Desk question about this last year. - jwillbur 18:13, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I did some asking around and that was a misprint.  He actually received the Congressional Gold Medal.--Kumioko (talk) 18:17, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, I went and did some more digging and found a congressional page with all the Congressional Gold Medal recipients and he's not on it. Since congress has to vote and agree to it though it would be on the congressional bill site.  I will do some digging and see what I can find.--Kumioko (talk) 18:25, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Awarded to Briton for action in Afghanistan

message: On the sidebar of the page, it allows users to search for congressional medal of honor winners by ethnicity. Almost every racial category is named, even groups that are arguably not an ethnic group like "Puerto Rican". Now it however does not list "white" recipients of the medal. Why is this?  -Preceding unsigned comment added by Napkin65 (talk • contribs) 20:18, 2 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: sort by Ethnicity function

message: Rather than a simple listing of recipients, this article goes into unreferenced and off-topic discussion of the wars themselves.  Specifically, the Korean War talks about "police action" and desire of Congress to avoid declaring war.  Similar discussions are sprinkled about.  Rather than seeking to rewrite these sections -- and thereby step on some editor toes -- I've tagged the article.  Perhaps I can get to it later, but I hope other editors will take a look and clean up some of the POV stuff.  Thanks. --S. Rich (talk) 07:48, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed the editorializing tag from the top and added a couple of off-topic tags.  (Others are needed.)  For example, how the Vietnam War ended with nV winning does not help describe the combat involving the MoH recipients; the list is one involving people actually receiving the MoH, not potential recipients or denied recipients; there are other problems -- like how US forces may or may not have helped reconstruct the country.--S. Rich (talk) 17:16, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Editorializing 

message: The article mentions the first African-American and female recipients. Is it appropriate to mention the first recipient of a particular race, but to leave out other races? Unless the first Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Asian, and Native American recipients are included, perhaps the mention of the first African American recipient should be deleted. Kerry (talk) 02:45, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks to whatever colleague(s) found the information on those two first-such recognitions and did the editing. If those in the other 4 categories can be identified via reliable sources, they should be added either directly by edits to the accompanying article, or by providing the information in this talk section for other editors to act on.   On the other hand, the notion of throwing away what is presumably adequately sourced information in response to a perception of unequal treatment is IMO profoundly contrary to the spirit and the practice of responsible WP editorship. --Jerzy•t 03:24, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

text: There were US citizens of Japanese ancestry who fell in WWII service. Also, i wonder whether "Indian scouts" serving in the Indian Wars with the cavalry (and perhaps in the Mexican War) were legally and/or de facto fellow soldiers -- and (especially if not) a look should be undertaken for decoration of WWII code talkers.--Jerzy•t 03:24, 10 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Notability of Race

message: Is it possible to create a column about when did each recipient receive the medal?--The Traditionalist (talk) 01:29, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  When? 

message: Is there a reason why we have articles called List of Korean War Medal of Honor recipients and List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War? Since the majority of subarticles of the latter format I suggest moving the former to List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Korean War. A few others would need to be renamed to be consistent, including List of Medal of Honor recipients (Veracruz). Reywas92Talk 01:42, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Naming consistency – proposed move 

message: The United States Army Center of Military History has deleted most MofH material from their website see https://history.army.mil/moh/index.html which states:
The President, in the name of Congress, has awarded more than 3,400 Medals of Honor to our nation's bravest Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration's creation in 1861. For information on Medal of Honor recipients visit the  Congressional Medal of Honor Society; or for specific issues email the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Awards and Decorations Branch ( usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.tagd-awards@mail.mil)
A Brief History of the Medal of Honor
Please do not contact CMH ANSWERS regarding Medal of Honor issues.
The Centre of Military History Medal of Honor material was mainly from the 1979 US Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs Medal of Honor ‘green’ book and was updated except to add 116 late and post-Vietnam awards. The 39 references to the Centre of Military History need to be deleted.
My thanks to  the Centre of Military History for hosting the 1979 US Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs Medal of Honor ‘green’ book online for many years. I support the decision to cease hoisting this material now that there are other reputable websites which have more information and more illustrations.  Anthony Staunton (talk) 00:06, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. 

message: I'm just adding this name in hopes it will soon be included. 71.94.64.100 (talk) 14:38, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, Iraq War, 2005 

message: see above  - This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.
The United States Army Center of Military History was one of the earliest websites that hosted MofH material. With so many specific sites documenting MofH awards It decided to cease such hosting. 
Most, if not all references to the United States Army Center of Military History are now invalid. Anthony Staunton (talk) 22:03, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  United States Army Center of Military History.