WW2 and History Collection / Awards and Decorations / Countries U / United States / Medal of Honor (not complete) Updated: November 5th, 2011 United States Medal of Honor   History The Medal of Honor was formally established by the Congres by passing a law on July 12th, 1862. The law established the Medal of Honor for enlisted men of the Army. The resolution to this decoration was introduced by Senator Henry Wilson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs on February 15th, 1862 and the resolution was approved by the 37th Congress, Second Session, 12 Stat. 623. The law provided for the awarding of a Medal of Honor "to such non-commissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection". The War Department contracted the Philadelphia silversmith William Wilson and Son and ordered 2000 medals to be cast. Although this formally established the Medal of Honor, a "Navy Version" already excisted. By the end of 1861, a proposal for a battlefield decoration for valor was submitted by Edward D. Townsend, an assistant adjutant at the War Department, to Winfield Scott, the General-in-Chief of the Army. Scott however was against the establishment of decorations, beceause he looked at them as an "European tradition". When Scott retired in October 1861, the idea for a decoration to recognize and honor distinguished naval service was adopted by Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy. Senator James W. Grimes, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, proposed on December 9th, 1861 the Public Resolution Number 82 (Bill 82: 37th Congress, Second Session, 12 Stat. 329) "to promote the efficiency of the Navy" which included the provision for a Navy Medal of Valor. The law establishing the Medal of Valor, was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on December 21st, 1861 and would later become the Navy Medal of Honor. This law established the decoration "to be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and marines as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry and other seamen-like qualities during the present war". The same Philadelphia Mint that was to design the later Medal of Honor, was contracted and on May 15th, 1862 a total of 175 medals were ordered by the U.S. Navy Department. In 1863, Congress decided to make the Medal of Honor into a permanent decoration (not only to be bestowed during wartime) and on March 3rd, 1863 the decoration was authorized for Officers of the Army also (37th Congress, Third Session, 12 Stat. 751). On March 25th, 1863, the first six Army MoH decorations were presented to six Union Army Volunteers, by the Secretary of War. To give the recipients more recognition and provide them with help when needed, on April 23rd, 1890, the Medal of Honor Legion was established in Washington. Until that time, the Army Version had a ribbon representing the United States Flag with horizontal and vertical stripes. In 1869 the ribbon for the Army version was redesignated with only vertical stripes. The medal itself received a new design in 1904, designed by General George Lewis Gillespie. This was done to help distinguish the medal from other medals. On March 3rd, 1915, the Navy version was made elegible for Officers from the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. In 1963, a special version to the MoH was authorized to be designed for the U.S. Coast Guard, but no version has yet been designed or awarded. This was different with the newly establishes U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Air Force had emerged from the U.S. Army Air Corps, later the U.S. Amry Air Forces and a Special Air Force version of the Medal of Honor was created in 1956 and authorized in 1960. The medal was officially adopted on April 14th, 1965. Although formally referred to as the "Congressional Medal of Honor", the decoration if usually presented by the President of the United States in a formal ceremony at the White House. In 1990, the U.S. Congress designated March 25th as the anual "National Medal of Honor Day". On October 23rd, 2002, the Publication L 107-248 was modified (36 U.S.C. 903), enebling the presentation of a Medal of Honor flag to present to the recipients of the decoration. The flag was based on a concept by First Sergeant Bill Kendall (retired Army Special Forces), who designed such a flag to honor Medal of Honor recipient Captain Darrell Lindsey. The official version of the flag was designed by Sarah LeClerc from the Institute of Heraldry. In 2011, the Department of Defence instructed that "for each succeeding act that would otherwise justify award of the Medal of Honor, the individual receiving the subsequent award is authorized to wear an additional Medal of Honor ribbon and/or a 'V' device on the Medal of Honor suspension ribbon". This however was already discontinued in July 2014 and changed into "a separate MOH is presented to an individual for each succeeding act that justified award". President George W. Bush presented the first flag on APril 4th, 2005 to Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith. The other at that moment living Medal of Honor recipients were presented the flag at a special ceremony held on board the USS Constitution on September 30th, 2006.   After the ending of the First World War, the U.S. Navy decided to design a second version of the Medal of Honor in order to be able to award two versions, one for combat actions and one for non-combat actions. The original decoration was adopted as the non-combat version and a new version was designed by the Toffany Company in 1919 and adopted as the combat version. This version from that time onwards was often referred to as the "Tiffany Version". The medal was to be presented to any Sailor or Marine who "in action involving actual conflict with the enemy, distinguish[es] himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty". This version was never very popular and in 1942, the U.S. Navy decided to return to presenting the original version of the decoration to all recipients and ceased awarding the decoration for non-combat actions. Recipients by alphabet: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z Recipients by date: 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946 - 1951 - Text: Wilco Vermeer Sources: - WW2Awards (Retrieved April 29th, 2015) - Medal of Honor / Wikipedia (Retrieved August 28th, 2015)   © WW2 History Collection, Wilco Vermeer, 2015 - 2016 contact