Society & Politics

Did you know you could get a medal for killing women and children?

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has directed the Defense Department to review the Medals of Honor awarded to approximately 20 soldiers for their actions during the December 1890 engagement at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, to ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation's highest military honor

The scope of the panel's review is limited to examining each Medal of Honor awardee's individual actions during the engagement at Wounded Knee Creek. However, "The [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient's actions," Austin wrote in a memorandum directing the review, which was released today.

"It's never too late to do what's right," a senior defense official said in an interview this week. "And that's what is intended by the review that the secretary directed, which is to ensure that we go back and review each of these medals in a rigorous and individualized manner to understand the actions of the individual in the context of the overall engagement."

The official noted that the review is warranted based on a range of factors, including a congressional recommendation to review the awards included in the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

The panel will provide Austin with a recommendation to either retain or rescind each Medal of Honor awarded for actions related to the Wounded Knee engagement, which resulted in the death and injury of approximately 350 to 375 Native American men, women and children, according to a 1990 Senate resolution.

That resolution, which marked the 100th anniversary of Wounded Knee, referred to the engagement as a massacre and expressed "deep regret on behalf of the United States to the descendants of the victims and survivors and their respective tribal communities."

Did you know you could get a medal for killing women and children?
Did you know you could get a medal for killing women and children?
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