Denied honor because of their race or ethnicity, 24 soldiers — 21 of whom are already deceased — finally received recognition from the government.
If not for the hue of their skin or their ethnicity, 24 soldiers who faced death in service to their nation would have received the most prestigious medals for their valor long ago. But they were born and fought in a time when such deeds were not always fairly acknowledged.
On Tuesday, the U.S. government corrected the oversight. President Barack Obama honored 24 Army veterans with the Medal of Honor — the country’s highest military award, given to American soldiers who display “gallantry above and beyond the call of duty ” — for their combat actions in Vietnam, Korea and World War II.
