Widow loses bid for Medal of Honor for her husband
MCPO Ret. In TN and Bobo send us a link in regards to a judge that denied a widow the opportunity to continue her fight to gt her husband’s Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) upgraded to the Medal Of Honor because of a technicality. Lt. Garlin Murl Conner was second only to Audie Murphy, a fellow Marne Man (3rd Infantry Division) in the number of awards that he earned during World War II and many folks agree that he should have earned the Medal of Honor.
From the Associated Press;
The board first rejected Conner’s application in 1997 on its merits and turned away an appeal in June 2000, saying at the time no new evidence warranted a hearing or a new decoration despite more than a dozen letters of support for Conner.
In the years that followed, lawmakers in Kentucky, Tennessee and three other states passed resolutions backing the effort to see Conner receive the Medal of Honor. After Chilton found three eyewitness accounts to Conner’s deeds in 2006, Pauline Conner resubmitted the case to the board in 2008 — two years after the statute of limitations expired.
A bipartisan group of current and former members of Congress has backed Conner’s application in the past, including retired Sen. Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican and World War II veteran; retired Sen. Wendell Ford, a Democrat from Kentucky; current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; and Whitfield, who represents Conner’s home town near the Tennessee line. Noted World War II historian Steven Ambrose, who died in 2002, wrote in November 2000 to support Conner’s application, saying his actions were “far above the call of duty.”
The review board remained unmoved by Conner’s submission.
The review board now claims that the application was beyond the “statute of limitations” to qualify for their consideration. This is despite the fact that many of the Medals of Honor that the President is about to award later this month, the events for which the troops are being awarded the medals occurred in the same time period as LT Conner’s.
Lt Connor died in 1998 and his widow has carried on the uphill fight until her efforts were blocked by U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell on Tuesday;
Russell concluded that Pauline Conner waited too long to present new evidence to the U.S. Army Board of Correction of Military Records, which rejected her bid to alter her husband’s service record.
Russell praised Conner’s “extraordinary courage and patriotic service” but said there was nothing he could do for the family.
“Dismissing this claim as required by technical limitations in no way diminishes Lt. Conner’s exemplary service and sacrifice,” Russell wrote.
Category: Real Soldiers
POG-a$$, paperpushing, motherFu@kers!
Sgt K, I was trying to think of something to write. But you said it best and to the point. Thank you.
yet it was how many years after San Juan Hill when Teddy Roosevelt’s MOH was awarded? I’n ot taking anything from Teddy – far fom it! – but the hypocrisy of “it has been too long” is disgusting.
Now here is a person that truly deserves the DSC, and all these other posers have to do is go to their local surplus store. That really sucks.
Of all the lame ass excuses….There should be no deadline for reviewing someones record/award and the MOH.
Though I do believe that the review of all the MOH awards coming up were begun before any such deadline.
It seems that there was a “gotcha” moment when someone said that there was a statute of limitations. Does this mean they’re going to strip the MOHs from people that were past the statute of limitations?
Who sits on this board? Military service members or bureaucrats?
It’s the same incompetent people that try to dictate how wars will be fought, never mind the guy in the field. They are called politicians
This is the problem with military awards. You have some commanders who are very willing to give awards, you have people who put their buddies in for awards to take care of them, you have an award that for one person is an AAM, but for another it would be an MSM.
But on the same token, you have people like this who think that giving someone award will take money out of their paycheck, so they don’t want to do it. And/or they are too lazy to spend the time.
….and an officer’s Silver Star is an NCO’s Bronze Star is a PFC’s ARCOM. The picture of John Kerry with his crew was a good example. Kerry is sporting the SS and swabbies got commendation medals.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Favoc.info%2Finfo%2Farticle.php%3Farticle%253D858&tbnid=jHQT09xlFKZWZM:&docid=X8I0d9FO4otZcM&h=293&w=396
There should be no statute of limitations on such an award.
My uncle was awarded his MOH posthumously in 2002 for actions 30 years before. It had been denied the first time around. The WWII dentist who was posthumously awarded the MOH in the same ceremony had a much longer gap.
The many deserving men that will receive awards from Obama are in that group because they are minorities and it was decided that they had been denied their awards because of discrimination. I’m sure they are all deserving but then so is this man.