I read a story today about an act of valor so extraordinary the highest military honor should be a given.
In October 2005, Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe, a career Army soldier, plunged into a burning Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq and pulled six other soldiers out of the flames. Cashe died from burns three weeks later. Four of the six soldiers he tried to save also succumbed. Cashe was awarded a lesser medal, a Silver Star, at the time. His former battalion commander, currently an active-duty general, is leading a campaign to upgrade it to the Medal of Honor.
The only similar story I’ve heard about is Henry “Red” Erwin, a sergeant in the Army Air Corps (predecessor of the Air Force) assigned to a B-29 as a radio operator who, during a 1945 bombing mission, picked up a burning flare that exploded in the belly of the plane with his bare hands and threw it out a window, saving the plane and crew. Erwin, who wasn’t expected to survive his injuries (but did) was awarded the Medal of Honor in record time, in an effort to confer the honor while he was still alive. Even within the exclusive club of Medal of Honor recipients, Erwin is a towering giant of a hero.
Cashe’s heroics match Erwin’s. But unlike Erwin, he didn’t survive, nor did the soldiers he sacrificed himself to save. That’s why his case is hung up in the Pentagon bureaucracy. The Medal of Honor requires witnesses and evidence. Documenting a case is much harder without survivors. But whatever the obstacles and difficulties, Cashe’s supporters should persevere, if for no other reason than the Medal of Honor itself would be diminished by failing to award it to him.
Of the 16 Medals of Honor awarded for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars so far, none have gone to a black soldier. Cashe’s family doesn’t contend his race has been held against him. By no means am I or anyone else suggesting he should get it because he was black. It should be based strictly on merit. In this case, the merit is overwhelming.
Update (8/29/20): The Pentagon has thrown its support behind awarding the Medal of Honor to Cashe and has asked Congress for approval. Read story here.
Photo: SFC Alwyn Cashe, war hero.