81 living recipients of the famed Medal of Honor

Age, health chip away at roster of Medal of Honor recipients
By WILLIAM COLE
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Published: September 9, 2012

America's greatest war heroes are dying.

There are 81 living recipients of the famed Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration for valor in combat "above and beyond the call of duty."

More than 50 of them will be in Honolulu Oct. 1-6 at the Hale Koa Hotel for the annual Medal of Honor Convention.

Close brushes with death in warfare somehow didn't claim them, but old age, disease and other factors are now taking a toll on their ranks.

At the time of last year's convention in Louisville, Ky., there were 85 living recipients. There were 91 in 2010, 96 in 2009, and 100 in 2008.

Retired Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Allan J. Kellogg Jr., a Kailua resident who smothered a grenade in a Vietnam rice paddy and survived the blast, remembers there were 157 living Medal of Honor awardees in 1982, when the last such convention was held in Hawaii.

"I don't know if you can really say there's a rhyme or reason (for the dwindling numbers) except for, they are veterans who are aging," said Victoria Kueck, director of operations for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which was chartered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958.

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a Marine combat veteran, is among those who have questioned why so few of the medals have been awarded during the nation's recent wars. Hunter last year referred to the award submission process as "onerous and intimidating."

There are no living Medal of Honor recipients from the Iraq War, three from Afghanistan, 54 from Vietnam, 12 from Korea and 12 remaining from World War II, according to the Medal of Honor Society.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye is the last Medal of Honor recipient living in the state from the vaunted 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team of mostly Japanese-American soldiers who fought tenaciously in Italy and France, officials said.
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