Heroes 101

Over at Milblogs, John of Argghhh directs us to the newly named Paul Ray Smith Middle School.

Here (until the front page changes - sorry, no permalinks) is the original news story (and photos) from the 3ID's (The Division Smith served with in Iraq) web page.

Here's the school's homepage. (Mascot: Eagles, chosen by the student body. Should have been the Bulldogs, but that's okay...)

Here are the google news results for Paul Smith Middle School- the only four news sites to cover the story are military-based. Hard to break into the mainstream media during Jon Benet week, I guess.

But earlier this month the New York Times did run an op-ed bemoaning the lack of Medals of Honor given for Iraq and Afghanistan. While I agree completely with the sentiment, I was a bit surprised to see it expressed in that particular venue. But the following two paragraphs leave no doubt as to why the topic of American war heroes might get more attention in the mainstream media:

For reasons I can’t fathom, the Pentagon top brass don’t feel that our heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan are especially meritorious. President Bush has yet to award a single Medal of Honor to a living veteran of combat in either place. (Only one has been given posthumously.)

During the Vietnam War, 245 Medals of Honor were awarded. If President Bush awarded the medals at roughly the same rate for service in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than two dozen would have been bestowed by now.