James Roberts letter to Ashton Carter

AVC President James C. Roberts’ Letter to Sec. Ashton Carter on The Medal of Honor

February 11, 2016

The Honorable Ashton Carter

Secretary of Defense
Pentagon
1000 Defense Pentagon Room 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Dear Mr. Secretary:Moh2

My colleagues and I – and I dare say veterans across the country – were pleased to read some weeks ago that the review of military awards ordered by your predecessor has been completed and that you are
ordering a review of the more than 1,000 medals awarded since the 9/11 attacks with an eye to upgrading some of them to the Medal of Honor.

Most previous reviews of this kind have determined that there were indeed valid reasons for upgrading some medals to Medal of Honor status. In this instance we are particularly concerned that there is not a single living recipient of the Medal of Honor awarded for service in Iraq. This despite the fact that more than 1,500,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines served there, 4,425 were killed in action and 32,223 wounded.

In addition, many were involved in heavy fighting in places like Fallujah and Ramadi that received the second highest award for valor – the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross or the Air Force Cross.

In contrast, 11 living veterans of combat in Afghanistan have received the Medal of Honor, this despite the fact that the number of men and women serving in Afghanistan is less than half the number of Iraq war veterans. This is not to denigrate in any way the valor of the 11 Medal of Honor who served in Afghanistan. All were fully deserving of the honor. We feel strongly, however, that there are many veterans of Iraq who are just as deserving.

This is no casual observation. Here at the American Veterans Center our mission is to honor our veterans and preserve their legacy. In the course of our work we have recorded oral histories with hundreds of veterans including many from Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to more than two dozen Medal of Honor recipients from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. We know their stories well and are able to compare “apples to apples.”

Based on our familiarly with the records of the heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan we believe that a serious injustice has been done to the 1.5 million veterans of Iraq who will be the first American military force since the Medal of Honor was created to lack a single living recipient of the Medal of Honor to speak for them.

We hope, pray and believe that you will do the right thing to correct this serious injustice to the 1.5 million veterans of Iraq who fought so bravely and sacrificed so much for our county.

Sincerely,

James C. Roberts
President