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Medal of Honor criteria and award inflation

phrogdriver said:
Actually, the instinct to chase cats is probably the remnants of the hunting instinct that its wolf ancestors had. Hunting=food=self preservation.
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Wolves must have also chased cars back in the stone age:D Not only does AW serve as a meeting place for aviators but it brings out the amateur biologist in us all.
 
PropAddict said:
Disagree. Instincts have been evolved for self-preservation purposes. Jumping on a grenade runs counter to that.

Let's not demean it by calling it an "instinctual response".
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The "instinct for self-preservation" is often overridden by other instincts, such as the instint to protect one's loved ones/offspring. You see that in nature very frequently. This discussion is about people who have been "raised" with the attitude of living with under harsh conditions/fighting with/being willing to sacrifice their lives for their brothers-in-arms. In the grenade scenario, there is no time to comtemplate what to do, just time to act. So when the action taken is to fall on the grenade, I would call that instinctual. Doesn't mean it's not worthy of the highest awards.
 
What I really think is happening is that the man to my left or right has become a loved one and so the instict to protect my biological brother extends to my brothers-in-arms. Otherwise, I do not think my military training has prepared me to overide the self-preservation instinct.
Offcourse there are cases were self-preservation was not overridden. It happened in NAM and more recently in Iraq.
 
Clux4 said:
Otherwise, I do not think my military training has prepared me to overide the self-preservation instinct.
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Definitely agree on this one.

All I've found is that military training can help people cope with the fear/stress of the life/death situations posed by combat, and allow them to continue doing their jobs instead of curling up in a ball on the floor.

When we're talking about people who are performing acts of valor, they're generally doing it for those previosly-stated reasons of protecting self, bros, and friendlies. I've never heard of anyone awarded a medal for valor who said they "did it for a medal". Usually they say they were "just doing their job" or "doing for thier buddies".
 
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