Some more developments in the Medal of Honor world.

A most curious story came to my attention a few weeks back. A boy scout managed to do what so many could not since the mid 1930's. He'd found the grave of a Medal of Honor hero.

Chester Howard West was a first Sergeant in the Great War and was awarded a Medal of honor for heroism in France. Back home in the early 1930s he chose Christmas Day  to marry his sweetheart. Then he took on work with a large farm owned by the son of a Civil War General who fought for the south.

Fighting apparently was still in the family and the son, while visiting Chester's home, pulled out an old CW  rifle. Chester got into a tussle with the son who then shot the hero. He later died at at hospital.

But even at death Chester did not find peace. His grave was in an area that was taken over by another entity and later became overgrown with trees and wild brush etc. For years many would attempt to find the grave. But then along came the boy scout and a crew to chop up a tree thought to have knocked down some markers. Sure enough, Chester's was one of them. 

Here is what caught my eye regarding the story...

The internet article says that Chester was also a recipient of the Victoria Cross and two other major awards. I do not know about the the later two, but note that he was NOT a recipient of the Victoria Cross as the story claims. There are no MOH men who were also awarded the VC.  I am aware of only one MOH man unsuccessfully nominated for a VC, and another who was awarded with the Queens Scarf, but I do not believe there were any heroes that earned both. If any reader can shed further info on this I would be most interested in hearing from you. 

In another internet story of late I found the statement that "only a few hundred (of the Medal of Honor recipients) are not American Citizens". Regular readers of this column will find this of equal interest. While many of almost 750 non-American born Medal of Honor men went on to later become naturalized citizens, all certainly did not.

Here is an interesting quote out of a MOH book from the early 2000's.

The numbers have of course increased in the last 17 years.

Yet another internet site brought some news about conscientious objectors and noted that there were only three who went on to earn the Medal of Honor. They gave the names of Desmond Doss, Thomas Bennett and Joseph LaPointe.

The article perhaps ought to have mentioned the incredible heroism of famed WWl hero Sergeant York and the bravery, and very sad tragedies that struck the Kenneth Kays family. Both were men who tried to enlist under that category but were refused. Regardless they went on to also be Medal of Honor recipients.

I will be telling the Kays story here in the months to come.

Moving on, the net yet again told the reader in weeks past that in the entire history of the MOH, there have been only 19 men who earned actually two different Medals of Honor. Past blogs have told you of 2 history seems to forget. And there could have even been yet another double recipient, but that story comes at a later day. But of the 19 all but 5 earned their medals for different battles. The remaining five, all marines, earned both of their medals FOR THE SAME ACTION and BATTLE. Each were later nominated by the Marines and the Navy. The recommendations read almost identically for the actions taking for the awards. Above are shown Sgt  Louis Cukela and to the right is Pte John Kelly, both WWl double recipients.

The Sgt is wearing his army MOH around his neck while the private has his in upper left corner of the two rows of medals. Both were the navy TIFFANY medal, described in past blogs, as well. The Sgt has his at far left in this picture, while the private's is to the right of his army medal.

Much has been said in this space over the past four years about the 1916-17 purge of medals were close to 900 were cancelled, without lawful justification. Most seem little concerned today with that event. Yet very little time elapsed from the purge actions to the day these five doubles were awarded. Surely some eyebrows must have been raised about this strange situation. One has to be curious about how they seem to have slipped under the wire.

And before I go I want to leave you with two birthday announcements ...of sorts. Here is the first.

Many sites tell, in the history of the Army Medal of Honor, that it was first  proposed on 17 Feb., 1862, a figure I may have also used in much earlier blogs. But in some most recent research I found several news clippings of the day for Feb 20th 1862, and all say basically the same. They note, as seen above,  that the proposal was tabled on the 19th, as shown above. So, in either 2 or 4 days we have a birthday of sorts for the army Medal of Honor. Happy 155th!

And 208 years ago Sunday past, Tom and Nancy lived in this dirt floored log cabin. Between its 143 logs held together with clay they saw the birth of their son who would one day become famous as an orator with the words... Four Score and seven years ago...

Happy belated birthday Abe!

Back on Sunday...
Bart