How many people have won the Medal of Honor?

Answer 1

These totals reflect the total number of Medals of Honor awarded. Nineteen (19) men received a second award: fourteen of these men received two separate Medals for two separate actions; five received both the Navy and the Army Medals of Honor for the same action. The total number of Medal of Honor recipients is 3,408. Total Medals of Honor awarded: 3,459 Total number of Medal of Honor recipients: 3,440 Total number of double recipients: 19 As of 13 April 2003, there are 137 living Medal of Honor recipients.

Answer 2

The Medal of Honor was created in the early days of the American Civil War. It was the second medal ever created for the US Military. The first was the Purple Heart, which was created by General Washington during the Revolution and was originally an award for bravery. It was called the "Badge of Military Merit" during the Revolution. It appears to have been awarded seven times, but then lapsed into disuse. The Purple Heart was revived in the early 1930s as an award to those injured by enemy action.

So during the American Civil War the only Medal available to reward bravery was the Medal of Honor. The first recipients were six of the "Andrew's Raiders" who infiltrated to near Atlanta and stole a railroad locomotive, intending to drive it back up the tracks and burn it in a crucial tunnel, hoping to cause the tunnel to collapse on this single Confederate line of supply. There was a movie called "The Great Locomotive Chase" about this incident, and the locomotive they stole is in a museum in the Atlanta area today. The raiders ran out of fuel and had to abandon the locomotive and take to the woods. About twenty of them were captured and six who were hung received the Medal.

The Medal was awarded generously during the Civil War, and for decades after. The Medal was still being awarded well into the 1890s for alleged Civil War exploits. Douglas MacArthur's father, Arthur, got his in 1892. A great many were given for "capturing a stand of enemy colors", meaning capturing the flag of an enemy regiment. This was not as easy as it might sound because a "color guard" stayed near the regimental flag, and these men were hand-picked volunteers who were very serious about not letting the enemy take their flag. The flag was not merely symbolic, it was a means of battlefield communication, and the rallying point for a regiment and its guide when attacking. But the Union army did get carried away with awards. For instance, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton promised the medal to all members of the 27th Maine who would extend their enlistment. Many stayed four extra days, then left. Due to confusion all 864 men in the regiment received the Medal. In 1916 an army board led by General Nelson A. Miles recommended that the Army rescind 911 Civil War Medals of Honor, including the 864 awarded to members of the 27th Maine, 29 to men who served in Abraham Lincoln's funeral guard, six to civilians, including the one awarded to the only woman ever to receive the Medal, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. She refused to return hers though, and it was restored by President Carter in 1977. Also rescinded were the Medals awarded to civilian scout "Buffalo Bill" Cody and twelve others deemed frivolous. This leaves 1522 Civil War Medals still on the books.

Nineteen men have won the Medal twice. Fourteen of these received the Medal for separate actions, and five received both the army and navy medals for the same action. A total of 3,467 Medals have been awarded to 3,448 different people.

In WWI many medals were awarded for a man throwing himself on a hand grenade to save his comrades by absorbing the entire blast with his body. This was not something that would earn you the Medal in WWII though. Recently President Bush awarded a posthumous Medal for this very act in the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts, which was very reminiscent of World War One.

Since the beginning of WWII 855 Medals have been awarded. There were originally 425 for World War II, among the sixteen million in uniform. In 1993 President Clinton added seven to the list, upgrading previous lesser awards to blacks. Clinton followed this with awards in 1998 to 21 Asian-Americans, including 20 to members of the 442nd Regiment, one of whom was Senator Daniel Inouye. In 2005 Bush awarded one to Jewish veteran and holocaust survivor Tibor Rubin, so there are now 454 WWII awards.

The criteria used and the deliberations of the board which decides to award the Medal are secret and the notes are destroyed after the decision is made.

There are still some on the books that are questionable. The navy awarded a great many for peacetime bravery early in the 20th century. Seven to sailors aboard the USS Iowa when a boiler exploded, another to a USS Chicago sailor who saved a ship's cook from drowning. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett got the Medal for exploring the North Pole. A sailor received the Medal for saving a woman from a burning hotel in Yokohama Japan after a 1923 earthquake. There were 20 Medals of Honor handed out for Wounded Knee, which is today generally acknowledged to have been a massacre of unarmed, non-resisting Indians. The award to General MacArthur in WWII, making him part of the only father-son combination to win the Medal, was more for bolstering morale than anything MacArthur did. MacArthur had his own code-breaking machine and access to intelligence not available to commanders in Hawaii, but he was still caught by surprise by the Japanese, hours after word of the Pearl Harbor attack was received in the Philippines. Then MacArthur erred grievously in not having food stocks moved into the Bataan peninsula before withdrawing there. Yet MacArthur was ordered out, avoiding captivity, and was awarded the Medal, while the army and navy commanders in Hawaii were given courts martial.

Answer 3

That group consists of 3,445 individuals with the most recent having been awarded on 22 October 2007.

Answer 4

There have been 3.469 awarded.