Why didn't SFC Plumlee receive the Medal of Honor?

 by MOTHAX

 

A curious story from the Washington Post that I will relate out of order here so you can first see what happened in Ghazni province, the same FOB I was stationed at 8 years before the actions of SFC Plumlee:

Plumlee, a member of 1st Special Forces Group and a former reconnaissance Marine, is credited with playing a leading role in stopping a fierce Taliban assault on Forward Operating Base Ghazni, a coalition installation in eastern Afghanistan. The Aug. 28, 2013, attack was launched with a 400-pound car bomb rocking the eastern side of the base, with insurgents pouring through a hole left in the wall while armed with suicide vests, a grenade launcher, hand grenades and small arms...
Plumlee, then a staff sergeant, rushed to the site of the car bombing near the base’s airfield in an unarmored pickup truck while under fire, including from a 30mm grenade that hit the vehicle’s front passenger-side headlight, but didn’t explode, according to a narrative of his actions provided to The Post. He exited the truck armed with a 7.62mm assault rifle, but couldn’t get it to work and swapped it for a pistol to shoot at several insurgents.
Plumlee killed one of the insurgents with a hand grenade, prompting his suicide vest to explode. Plumlee continued to fire, and suicide vests for at least two insurgents also detonated, according to the narrative. Plumlee continued to brave enemy fire to apply tourniquets to a wounded soldier, and then directed a civilian and a U.S. soldier nearby to drive the wounded to a surgical team on base.

The awarding of the Medal of Honor doesn't follow a specific pattern, because each action is somewhat different than others.  Some have sort of the same elements (Clint Romesha, Ty Carter and Ryan Pitts all are sort of "Alamo" type defenses, while Sal Giunta was all alone) but it's difficult without more info to say who warrants it and who does not.  (The Peralta and Cache non-awards still amaze me.)  But either way, a number of people believed that Plumlee deserved it, and not just privates and sergeants who were there.

Plumlee was nominated for the Medal of Honor by the head of a Special Operations task force in Afghanistan, Army Col. Patrick B. Roberson, two months after the attack, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Senior military officers in Afghanistan at the time — including Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, who will soon become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Mark A. Milley, who just became the chief of staff of the Army — signed off on the recommendation, typically the largest hurdle to receiving a major valor award.

So what happened?  It's not entirely clear, but Congress is trying to find out now...

But Plumlee’s Medal of Honor nomination was not approved once it reached the United States. Army Secretary John McHugh instead signed off on a Silver Star for Plumlee in March after a panel at Fort Knox, Ky., overseen by the Army’s Human Resources Command and known as the Senior Decorations Board, recommended that the higher award not be approved, Army officials said.
The case, detailed in a front-page story by The Washington Post in June, drew concerns from Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), who questioned whether Plumlee did not receive the award because the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) had examined whether he had illegally sold a rifle scope online. That investigation yielded no charges, but Hunter questioned whether Plumlee was treated fairly.

Go read the whole story over at Washington Post, but I'd hate to think this guy's medal got downgraded over an event he was found not-guilty of committing.

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