Marine to receive Medal of Honor

[seamusTX]

The White House announced today that Dakota Meyer, a Marine who was serving in Kunar province in Afghanistan in September 2009, will receive the Medal of Honor next month.

He will be the first living Marine to receive a Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the third of all services.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/20 ... r-081211w/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Medal of Honor has become as difficult to earn as a Nobel these days (and much more painful). When the recognition was first established during the War Between the States, over 1500 were awarded. About 2000 have been awarded since, most posthumously.

Eighty-five recipients are still in the sunshine.

http://www.cmohs.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[The Annoyed Man]

The White House announced today that Dakota Meyer, a Marine who was serving in Kunar province in Afghanistan in September 2009, will receive the Medal of Honor next month.

He will be the first living Marine to receive a Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the third of all services.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/20 ... r-081211w/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Medal of Honor has become as difficult to earn as a Nobel these days (and much more painful). When the recognition was first established during the War Between the States, over 1500 were awarded. About 2000 have been awarded since, most posthumously.

Eighty-five recipients are still in the sunshine.

http://www.cmohs.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

The only thing wrong with that statement is that they'll give the Nobel peace prize to almost anybody these days, as long as they are social engineering American politicians of the democrat persuasion who are trying to remake the world order.............Gore.................Obama............. There are 5 Nobel prizes awarded every year for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. That is 50 Nobel prizes in the last 10 years, compared to just 3 Medals of Honor. Nobody ever died getting a Nobel.

Good for Sergeant Meyer. I'll bet he would have rather had found his buddies alive instead of dead.

[seamusTX]

Forgive me. I was thinking of the Nobel prizes in the hard sciences, not peace or literature.

Also Nobel prizes are awarded only to living persons. I think it's written into the terms. Most of the peace prize laureates are politicians or diplomats who live sheltered lives.

However, a couple of recent recipients, Liu Xiaobo and Wangari Maathai, put themselves at considerable risk from hostile governments.

- Jim

[The Annoyed Man]

However, a couple of recent recipients, Liu Xiaobo and Wangari Maathai, put themselves at considerable risk from hostile governments.

- Jim

No, forgive me. I was being flippant. You're absolutely correct about those two. We had a close family friend, Max Delbrück, who was awarded a Nobel Prize. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Delbr%C3%BCck

Max's family and my family used to go on camping trips together every year at Joshua Tree Nat'l Monument. He was the closest thing to a renaissance man that I've ever known. He was a prominent German physicist before WW2. He told me he had been involved in Germany's heavy water project before the war. His wiki page simply says "he moved" to the US in 1937 and began pursuing his other interest, biology research, at Caltech. He later told me that he "fled Germany" because the Nazis were trying to press him into service in developing "heavy water" for their nuclear program. He knew where that was headed, and he didn't want any part of it. His Nobel was for his work at Caltech on bacteriophages...........not bad for a physicist! But I remember that at night in the campground, he would give impromptu lectures about the stars; and he was fully qualified to discuss literature with my parents, who were literature professors. He was a truly brilliant and special man.

From his wiki page:

Max's brother Justus Delbrück, a lawyer, his sister Emmi Bonhoeffer and his brothers-in-law Klaus Bonhoeffer and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were heroes in the German Resistance against the Nazi Regime. Klaus and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were executed in the last days of Hitler's Germany.

You learn something new every day. I didn't know about his connection to the Bonhoeffers. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the true heros of the Christian faith.

Sorry, I didn't intend to detract from the honor due to Sergeant Meyer.

[gigag04]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer has written some challenging words to believers.

[Texas Dan Mosby]

Semper Fi Marine.

[seamusTX]

Today is the day Sgt. Meyer receives the Medal of Honor.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20 ... s-no-hero/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[Purplehood]

However, a couple of recent recipients, Liu Xiaobo and Wangari Maathai, put themselves at considerable risk from hostile governments.

- Jim

No, forgive me. I was being flippant. You're absolutely correct about those two. We had a close family friend, Max Delbrück, who was awarded a Nobel Prize. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Delbr%C3%BCck

Max's family and my family used to go on camping trips together every year at Joshua Tree Nat'l Monument. He was the closest thing to a renaissance man that I've ever known. He was a prominent German physicist before WW2. He told me he had been involved in Germany's heavy water project before the war. His wiki page simply says "he moved" to the US in 1937 and began pursuing his other interest, biology research, at Caltech. He later told me that he "fled Germany" because the Nazis were trying to press him into service in developing "heavy water" for their nuclear program. He knew where that was headed, and he didn't want any part of it. His Nobel was for his work at Caltech on bacteriophages...........not bad for a physicist! But I remember that at night in the campground, he would give impromptu lectures about the stars; and he was fully qualified to discuss literature with my parents, who were literature professors. He was a truly brilliant and special man.

From his wiki page:

Max's brother Justus Delbrück, a lawyer, his sister Emmi Bonhoeffer and his brothers-in-law Klaus Bonhoeffer and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were heroes in the German Resistance against the Nazi Regime. Klaus and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were executed in the last days of Hitler's Germany.

You learn something new every day. I didn't know about his connection to the Bonhoeffers. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the true heros of the Christian faith.

Sorry, I didn't intend to detract from the honor due to Sergeant Meyer.

You went to Joshua Tree National Monument when you were younger? Even today that is one rugged place to hang out.