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Trump and the Medal of Honor

Dickinson County veterans should be outraged at “bone spurs” Donald Trump’s recent remarks about the Medal of Honor. “But I really, I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” he said. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It’s actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead. She gets it and she’s healthy, beautiful woman.”

Really? The Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center is named for a Dickinson County soldier who between Sept. 16-18, 1945, saved two of his men, took 25 German prisoners and fought off assaults, after which 20 dead Germans were found in front of his position. The citation for his award, given June 25, 1945, reads, “By his heroic stand and utter disregard for personal safety, Sgt. Johnson was in a large measure responsible for defeating the enemy’s attempts to turn the exposed left flank.”

So what did Miriam Adelson do to merit the Presidential Medal of Freedom? As the fifth-richest woman in America, she donated millions to Trump’s 2016 campaign, his inauguration and his legal defense fund during the Mueller investigation.

We should remember that Trump called veterans who gave their lives, “suckers” and “losers,” according to his own chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, who lost a son in battle. We should remember Trump’s disrespect for Sen. John McCain when he said, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” He asked staff to exclude disabled veterans from military parades.

Trump’s own words show who he is and how he views the heroism of soldiers such as Dickinson County’s own Medal of Honor awardee. He and his attitude are dishonorable because he cannot recognize the honor in men like Sgt. Oscar G. Johnson.

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