Ooops

[unhappycamper]

24 preserved MoH (Medal of honor) records questioned
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 18, 2007 8:04:53 EDT

The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, which for the past seven years has been collecting oral and written histories of veterans’ war experiences, contains 24 entries for Medal of Honor recipients that are bogus, according to official records.

Of the 49 purported recipients of the nation’s highest award for combat valor who have participated in the nationwide project by telling their story for posterity, only 25 appear on the official Medal of Honor registry mandated by Congress in 1917, which includes 3,463 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have earned the medal since its inception.

The bogus entries came to light based on a review of Veterans History Project records by Doug Sterner, who maintains an extensive, yet unofficial, online database of valor award recipients, and Mary Schantag, who runs the POW Network, a Web site listing U.S. prisoners of war.

Their review also turned up 47 history project participants who appear to claim unearned service crosses — the nation’s second-highest combat award — and 45 participants who falsely claim to have been prisoners of war.

Bob Patrick, director of the Veterans History Project, said the records are provided by interview subjects voluntarily, and project staff rarely verifies Medal of Honor claims. They do not review entries involving lesser awards for valor or service.

“We in the past have made an attempt to make a review when people claim the Medal of Honor,” Patrick said in a telephone interview Monday afternoon. “We did a review some months ago, 18 months, and clearly it is time we do a review again.”

Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_veteranshistoryproject_070917/