IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: Obama praises Medal of Honor recipients

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President Barack Obama made an unannounced visit Wednesday to Arlington National Cemetery to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring Medal of Honor recipients. Thirty-five recipients of the nation’s highest honor for bravery were in attendance.

‘Medal of Honor recipients are the foremost example of greatness in service and sacrifice,’ Obama said. ‘Their bravery and humble strength continues to reassure our nation of the strength of its character and ideals even in these difficult times.’

Yet to be determined is whether the new administration will continue the pattern of its predecessor when it comes to the Medal of Honor.

The Marine Corps Times, a Gannett publication, reports in this week’s edition on the small number of Medal of Honor recipients in the current conflicts -- four in Iraq, one in Afghanistan -- and the fact that all five awards were posthumous.

‘With the exception of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, no other major conflict in modern military history has failed to produce a living recipient of the nation’s highest award for valor,’ reporter Brendan McGarry writes. ‘And no war has ever produced so few Medal of Honor -- or service cross -- recipients.’

Just why so few medals have been bestowed remains a mystery, even to military brass involved in the process.

From World War I through Vietnam, statistics show little variation in the rate of Medal of Honor awards per 100,000 troops: from 2.3 during the Korean war to 2.9 during World War II.

But since the attacks of Sept. 11, the newspaper reports, the rate is 0.1 per 100,000 troops.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego