Medal of Honor awarded at the SOTU
Chief Warrant Officer Five Eric Slover
Last night, if you didn’t watch the President’s State of the Union Address you missed the presentation of a Medal of Honor. I didn’t watch the SOTU. I didn’t want to watch the Democrat pout-fest. It seems Congressman Green (D-Retard) was escorted out again for being indecorous. As part of the political theater that is the SOTU, US Army CW5 Eric Slover had the Medal of Honor pinned around his neck.
There’s little available so far on Chief Slover, so the whole story will have to be written for a future Valor Friday piece. Slover’s medal was awarded for actions in the mission that captured Maduro in Venezuela last month.
According to POTUS, Slover was the lead pilot of a flight of CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Going by his current unit patch on the left sleeve Slover is with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). The 160th SOAR is filled with the most badass gutsy pilots to ever handle a cyclic and collective.
As they were coming over their objective, the aircraft started to take fire. The fire was apparently very accurate as Slover was hit repeatedly by enemy rounds, shattering his legs. Despite this, he carried on. The mission was ultimately very successful. No American lives were lost, the de facto, illegitimate dictator Maduro and his wife were taken into custody alive, and are now facing trial in the US for their crimes. Slover is still recovering from his wounds, and only stood with the assistance of a walker.
As I said earlier, there’s not much about Slover that’s public at the moment. From his uniform you can see he’s already well decorated. He’s got 10 overseas service bars, so he’s spent a lot of time abroad. He’s got the red arrowhead patch of the Army Special Operations Command on his right sleeve, indicating combat service with that organization.
He’s a master aviator with jump wings and the air assault Bullwinkle. The Medal of Honor is being added to a Distinguished Service Cross, multiple Distinguished Flying Crosses, multiple Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, and a host of Air Medals. He’s got a bunch more individual medals and the typical service and campaign medals of a longtime veteran of the War on Terror.
The award of Slover’s MoH is unusual for two reasons. Firstly, they are not typically awarded at the State of the Union. They’re usually done in a White House ceremony the last few decades. Awarding it at the SOTU is typical Trump flourish in that it’s both a spectacle for his own speech (and the success of the operation he ordered) and it also gives Slover a much wider audience to see his accomplishment.
Secondly, the MoH being awarded a month after the action for which it’s earned hasn’t happened (in my extensive research) since World War II. Even then, the extremely rapid award of the medal was only done to make sure it was given to men before they died, such as was the case with Red Erwin (who did ultimately recover from his grievous wounds). The typical timeline to receive a Medal of Honor since at least the Vietnam War has been a period of years. Even jumping on a grenade usually takes two or more years to be properly recognized.
Both of these reasons will surely be used, since people hate Trump with the burning fury of a thousand suns, to cast doubt on Slover’s medal being rightly earned. I’m sure when the full story is told (with the multiple requisite witness statements) that it will be shown that Slover is an undoubtedly brave officer. This is evidenced by his existing numerous decorations for valor.
Category: Army, Medal of Honor, Trump!, Valor, Veterans in the news
How did they find a walker with room for those big brass ones??
His Chinook was at the edge of max load as soon as he boarded.
Dem Fatigue is real…
You can’t hate the Dems enough. Look at these bitter old see-you-next-Tuesdays (IYKYK) mocking the GREAT MEN that defend this country and by default theses cackling bitches freedom as well.
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2026649716914545047
This is the same class who wants to co-opt the heroism of the Marines at Iwo Jima.
There were two MOH’s awarded last night at the SOTU.
The first was Chief Slover who despite being grievously wounded with numerous GSWs was able to not only pilot his aircraft to allow his gunners to destroy the enemy but also set it down safely. It should be pointed out that the co-pilot was also wounded at the same time.
So yes, pure bad assery.
The other was Captain Royce Williams whose myth and legend was recounted is in these pages very recently. His medal was overdue by about 75 years due to secrecy concerns but at least he got it. Glad Chief Slover didn’t have to wait that long.
Don’t know whose plan it was to do the awards but I believe it was a good bridging of the gap from one generation to another. It was part for show but both these men are highly worthy. Trump himself said that he felt honored to be in the same room as them and given the size of his ego that says a lot about what was going on.
To be honest, the speech had gone way to long at that point and I had my hand on the remote getting ready to turn it off and go to bed when the camera panned over and I saw Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga’s aide standing behind Chief Slover holding the medal with the ribbon outstretched. Braga is of course the current JSOC Commander and he was likely the one that recommended the award.
It was definitely worth setting the remote down and watching.
I’m not sure Capt. Royce was smiling for getting the award, or that Melania was the one giving it to him. I’m sure she smelled just as nice as she looked, and that too was all it took to make him a happy man. I’d bet good money he was able to meet her before the SOTU address.
7 weeks from action to award: that is INSANE in today’s day and age. (other than Red Irwin, every other award of the Medal of Honor has taken upwards of YEARS, from what I recall). The fact he already has a DSC, DFC, BS/Vs, PH, and accoutrements…this guy has been hauling around massive cajones for years. Glad to see Royce Williams also get his just due at the tender age of 100.
His uniform looks a bit large as if in anticipation of needing
more room in the near future.
His bottom left ribbon says “continued on other side”.
MacArthur was awarded his in less than a month (it was actually approved before then, as it was essentially a bribe to get him off the island) but it was for sure part of the campaign to create some good news out of the crushing defeat.
Erwin’s medal was approved so fast because the doctors were certain he was going to die very soon. He fooled them all and lived till 2002.
Not saying the CW5 Slover doesn’t deserve the MoH, the man proved why he was a Nightstalker. I always heard that the GWOT raised the bar on the MoH to the point where you either needed to die, or if you lived and were nominated you needed to be in some unit that fell under JSOC, or you just were not getting it.
I was in 2/2 Infantry for OIF II, SSG Bellavia was in my BN, I was in C Co he was A Co, I never knew him personally, and his original award after killing 3 Hajies in hand to hand was downgraded to a freakin’ Silver Star, and it took what, 10 years of countless people to get it upgraded to what it should have been all along.
My platoon was involved in a nasty firefight we jokingly called “the market place shoot out”. My asshole PSG turned out to not be so much of an asshole and actually put all of our Bradley drivers in for Bronze Stars for valor. The awards got kicked back from BN with a note “soldiers rank does not rate a Bronze Star for their actions”, so they all got ARCOMs with V, nothing to sneeze at, but still, and don’t get me started on the Fobbits that spent their year sitting in an office instant messaging their wives all day getting BS for service, or higher.
I would have to have had them show me where in the regulations rank has anything to do with any award for valor?
Service awards are leveled up based upon role and responsibility; but this is also unofficial and not in any regulation but makes some sense to a degree.
Still, I’d respect an ARCOM for valor over a BSM for service any day.
:…“soldiers rank does not rate a Bronze Star for their actions…”
You blood must have boiled seeing that. Mine is just reading this. Douchebags.
Pretty much every GWOT Vet has seen rear echelon fobbits get BSMs because of their rank despite never leaving the air conditioning in HQ.
I got 2 X NDSMs and a rock….or something.
Hear, hear!
Oh, yeah. I saw that when I was still in. The thing that gets me is that a soldier’s bravery cannot get the proper recognition because of their RANK!!!
Yes, but those are BSM for Merit, not Valor, and are awarded based on rank.
The Vs are completely different, and the rank has nothing to do with it.
That’s why, when I become Secretary of War, I will change it so that valor awards and merit awards are completely different.
My unofficial recommendation is NO BSM’s for merit, that’s what the MSM is for.
So when you become SECWAR, will you start drinking better beer? 😉
SFC D. I grew up as a Marine brat and didn’t realize that there was such a thing as a Bronze star for Merit until I was at a function in the early 80s and I saw a number of AF officers with Bronze Stars. As an impressionable young Captain, I said something about this to a crusty Lt Col that I worked for and he told me not to be impressed as a BSM was simply an MSM in a combat zone.
MSM for service/merit
OR
BSM for Valor
Stop the idiocy.
I watched a Colonel get a BSM for service. In Qatar. Up to that point, I thought it was only for combat service.
Not as bad as that support unit I heard about that put all key leaders in for a MSM before! they left Kuwait to head up and do their year. Their reasoning was the lag time between submission and approval.
You should have seen how mad my PSG was, he was usually stone faced and emotionless, but he was PISSED.
There has been an insane level of gate-keeping on valor awards the last several decades. Which is why you see so many getting reviewed and upgraded. There’s only one living MoH recipient for the Iraq War, and only seven in total. SgtMaj Kasal is but one example of someone worthy of an upgrade.
Part of the problem is that while millions served in Iraq and Afghanistan only 300-400K saw actual combat over the 20+ years we were there. About 250k of those were Army of course. A little more than half of those in combat were not in typical combat MOS’s such as infantry or armor.
Of those, more than a few saw very limited combat such as being hit with IDF or an IED. A lot of combat that took place didn’t involve units that are typically regarded as combat units. The enemy didn’t want to cooperate by attacking our well trained and well resourced combat patrols and units but instead focused on logistics, because hey, it was a war, lets not discriminate.
Out biggest problem by 2005 was keeping all the Combat support guys like supply sergeants and refuelers was keeping them from quitting because they were tired of getting shot at and then to adding insult to injury, not get any recognition.
When the PLL clerk did some really heroic shit because his convoy was attacked five times the operational commander often didn’t want to even look at it, because it wasn’t what he thought war should be. It was just the bad guys messing with his logistics for the real units. Any wonder why went on forever without progress?
I was fighting that “rank for award” bulkshit in the 1980s. Won some lost some. Did my best to shame the perps. Publicly accused some seniors of jealousy. (How the eff I stayed out of the stockade had to be Divine intervention.)
Predicted this shit would get worse and the whole system would get corrupted to “rankribbons” (TM).
Salute!
Well done, Chief Slover.
Good times.
C’mon man. That’s not being fair to the caveman.
The caveman is several evolutionary steps up from Al Green.
BBB.
This.
Again
Royce Williams – Flying from USS Oriskany
Eric Stover – Flying from USS Iwo Jima
“Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere on the sea. When they find it, they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?”
-The Bridges at Toko-Ri-
Am I an old stick in the mud because there was no “Attention to orders” or reading of the narrative.
I wondered.
I think if it were a soldier function in front of a parade or formation then that would have made sense. Seeing it was 95% civilian and most wouldn’t have known what to do, and many on the D side of the isle wouldn’t have stood up anyway, even if they knew better, that was about right.
Fuck them all.
Do it for -him-. And for all the others before him.
I will say this. Here at JSOC they are the masters at pushing awards through. During the Gaza kerfluffle and the Iran bunker buster bombing, they were turning awards around in 48 hours. All the J1 folks had their asses in their seats and the printers were humming. If people get put in for something, it is very rare it does not get approved, and there are no quota limits.
How it should be. There’s no reason that awards should take a year or more when it just needs the approval of the first O-6 commander in the chain. They rubber stamp ’em most of the time anyway, so what the delay?
The delay is the turds at every level of the S1 in Big Army. Your award/NCOER/OER mean nothing and is just another sheet of paper. When I was in Korea I had to walk myself over to PSB and beg them to find or create me my PCS orders as I had less than a week before my last 2 weeks, and when I PCSed as a NCO for the first time I had to go beg for a copy of my most recent, because your clearing papers say you need it but nobody checks to see if you have it. Same when I ETSed, had to go to PSB on Rose Barracks and get my final. Lucky for me, the Cpt over their had been in my company and BN in Iraq and he got it for me.
Awards Clerk was my job outside the mail room.
Personally, I busted my ass getting awards done. Loved that job. Was honored to get those for our people.
HOOAH Chief Slover!! Now do Major Capers!!
I am a Trump supporter insofar as I think he’s been a great president. His biggest fault, in my opinion, is his braggadocio and penchant for making it “all about him”. That doesn’t mean he’s done a bad job as President, he hasn’t, it just means I don’t particularly like his public persona. Even when he’s praising others he does it in a way that’s self-aggrandizing and this was no different. “They’re usually done in a White House ceremony the last few decades. Awarding it at the SOTU is typical Trump flourish in that it’s both a spectacle for his own speech (and the success of the operation he ordered) and it also gives Slover a much wider audience to see his accomplishment.” That was pretty much my take as well…it seems pretty demeaning to me to be awarded a medal for conspicuous gallantry in combat as a skit in a variety show. They didn’t even have a call to orders or read the actual citation as is traditional. At the same time, it means millions of people saw him receiving the award rather than the dozens that would normally have seen it…but I have to wonder how important that is to the Warrant. I know if it were me, I’d have much preferred a private ceremony rather than a public spectacle in which I’m just a prop on a set. “Secondly, the MoH being awarded a month after the action for which it’s earned hasn’t happened (in my extensive research) since World War II.” Also aligns with my thoughts. It was so incongruous to see a MoH awarded so quickly after the action that it shocked me. That smacks of an award granted for political purposes rather than legitimate, considered evaluation of his actions. He may very well deserve it (and from the description of the events, I’d say he did), but I’d bet there’s always going to be that niggling little doubt in the back of his mind (if not others) as to whether he really earned it, or it was just a convenient little bit of political… Read more »