August 2014 - Argghhh!

8 August shares a distinction with 2 August with no Medals being awarded for actions on this day. So, today we'll go with an *almost* Medal of Honor. A Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest honor this nation can bestow upon our soldiers. On M ay 14, 2009, Staff Sgt Jarion Halbisengibbs was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in theSamarra, Iraq, on Sept. 10, 2007. Staff Sgt. Halbisengibbs led a combined assault force on agroup of farm houses known to be an insurgent...

There are 8 awards for this day in history. The Civil War resulted in the greatest number of Medals, over 1500 of them, for reasons discussed in previous posts about it being the only thing available at the time. Today, we open with one of the iconic Civil War Medal actions, a flag capture.

5 August - We make up for the 8 Medals in the past four days as we open with the Civil War with a Medal for Baton Rouge in 1862 and then a huge number of Medals for the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. I would note that Yeoman Atkinson had an interesting career. The Battle of Mobile Bay is the most be-Medalled battle in the history of the Medal - with 97 awards. 4 August has one award. This day in history has thus far generated 101 total awards. Almost 3 percent of the total awards of the Medal stem...

After taking yesterday completely off, the Medal of Honor went back to work on 3 August, back in the Civil War. If the name seems familiar to you Redlegs in the readership - Lawton, Oklahoma home of Fort Sill and the Field Artillery, is named for MG Lawton - who had a long, distinguished career that was ended by a sniper's bullet in the Philippines. In a little twist of the dagger of irony, Lawton, who commanded the troops who escorted Geronimo from Fort Sill to Florida, was killed by an insurrecto...

This is an unusual day for the Medal. 1 August was unmarked by Medal actions until World War II. Until 1 August, 1943. Operation Tidal Wave , when 5 Medals, 3 of them posthumous, emerged from the flaming avgas and tumbling wreckage of Army Air Force bombers during the first raid on the massive (and massively defended) oil refinery operation at Ploesti, Rumania. 54 of the 177 bombers were lost and 532 of the 1,726 personnel engaged listed as dead, missing or interned. And the Medal has not made an...