ABCMR Supports Conner MoH Upgrade
Last March, Jonn wrote about a Federal court denying the request to upgrade the Distinguished Service Cross awarded during World War II to 1LT Garlin Murl Conner to the Medal of Honor. The denial was due to strictly legal grounds, based on the expiration of all statutes of limitations for appealing a previous action.
Since then, there has been further action in the matter. The case was further appealed, to a 3-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. That panel in turn partially reversed the earlier court’s decision, ordering the matter into mediation.
The venue apparently chosen for mediation was the Army Board for Correction of Military Records. The ABCMR heard the case; last week, it rendered its decision.
The ABCMR recommended that the Senior Army Decorations Board recommend an upgrade of Conner’s DSC to the Medal of Honor.
This isn’t by any means a final decision. The Senior Army Decorations Board must make its recommendation; from there, assuming the Senior Army Decorations Board agrees with the ABCMR it would go to the Senate Armed Services Committee for further consideration. The SASC would then make a recommendation to the POTUS.
The full process could well take many months longer. But this ABCMR decision supporting the upgrade is a key step forward, and may well be the critical turning point in the matter.
Fox has a longish article on the matter; it has a brief summary of Conner’s World War II heroism (his DSC was not his only decoration for valor), and also details briefly his actions for which he received his DSC. Reading the article is well worth your time. If you do so, be prepared to be awed.
Let’s hope the Senior Army Decorations Board and SASC move out smartly here. Based on accounts of his actions, it appears that Conner’s heroism on 24 January 1945 indeed was of a nature “above and beyond the call of duty”. Though recognition will now be posthumous, that heroism should be properly recognized. “Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but beggared is one that has and forgets them.”
And special kudos to Richard Chilton, himself a combat veteran, who has spearheaded recent efforts to have Conner receive the recognition he is due. Well done, sir. Well done indeed.
Category: Historical, Real Soldiers
Time has not changed his Heroic actions. So statutes of limitations is the best they had, really?
I always thought there was no time limit on doing the right thing.
His #1 cheerleader never heard of a soldier receiving four Silver Stars. Okay. The fact that the courts are involved bothers me. I know this won’t be a popular sentiment but when the courts are involved in a matter involving anything to do with valor , I cringe. I have no opinion as to whether or not this soldier’s soldier merits the MOH. That was for others to decide many years ago, and they decided not.
2/17 Air Cav, I respectfully disagree. On D-Day Dick Winters led E Co. in the attack on the guns at Brecourt Manor. He was awarded the DSC because higher decided that only one MOH would be awarded in the 101st and another awardee had already been decided upon. They did decide and decided not. I do agree that the courts should have nothing to do with this but it’s already too late
You might want to read the attached article, 2/17 Air Cav. This case has some rather extenuating circumstances. From the Fox article:
Other copies of supporting documentation were apparently eventually located in other parts of the National Archives. However, if I’m reading the rest of the article correctly that didn’t happen not until either 2000 or 2001.
Yeah, I skimmed the article and missed his commander’s apology. That is a game changer.
I was going to write this as well but you beat me to it 2/17. I have no idea what in the hell the Federal Courts would have to do with military awards of decorations. My understanding was this was entirely a matter of and for the military branch and its department in the Pentagon. Whether his award is and or should be upgraded to the MoH should still be in the hands of the military alone.
Okay, I should have read the article instead of skimming it also Hondo. I still don’t like civilian courts having any say in military awards. That’s what we see in the likes of phonies such as what’s his ass, we went round and round with a year or so ago who was a pretend lawyer and took his case to every court that wouldn’t and eventually did toss his ass to the curb over it. All that t simply say, I don’t remember the douches name.
Sparks, 2/17 Air Cav: can’t say I’m thrilled with the courts getting involved here, either.
But on some occasions, bureaucracies like DoD can become so rule-bound and/or obsessed with refusing to admit a past mistake that doing the right thing becomes secondary. Those cases are reasonably rare – but they do happen.
In such cases, it sometimes takes a court to step in and say, in the interest of justice: “Cut the crap and take a second look at this.” That’s what appears to have happened here.
I don’t have to like that, and I don’t. But sometimes it is simply necessary.
IMO, this was one of those times.
Hondo, I think a good way to sum up the situation is that the court’s are ruling on the processes followed and whether or not they are fair and just. The merits of the award are still to be determined by the military.
I would disagree here, PT.
The initial request for reconsideration was apparently rejected by the Army. The matter then went to court.
The most recent court cases were a mixed bag. The court that rejected the latest Conner request for reconsideraiton did so on strictly technical grounds (expiration of statute of limitations for an appeal). However, the judge’s ruling in that case reputedly (disclaimer: I haven’t read the ruling) indicated reluctance to do so, but followed the letter of the law.
The 3-judge panel ignored that technical legal requirement, IMO siding on the side of justice. In effect, by ordering mediation with the ABCMR as the venue, they effectively told the Army exactly what I stated above: “Cut the crap and take a second look at this”. The second look, surprisingly to me, decided that yes – Conner did indeed rate a MoH, and that justice required them to recommend that “Big Army” consider recommend the POTUS upgrade the award.
Both of these latter decisions are to me quite surprising. Courts are historically loathe to disregard precedent and statutes of limitations. And the best I can tell, the ABCMR doesn’t usually go against the findings of a court of law – which they did here by ignoring the previous Federal court decisions on the matter.
In short: here, IMO we have a rare case indeed. A Federal Appeals court decided to ignore the strict language of the law in the interest of justice; and an Army review board decided to do the same. IMO, that bodes well for the eventual chances of seeing Conner’s DSC upgraded to a MoH.