Lets say a soldier or sailor does something brave. They are given a medal - maybe a bronze or silver star, maybe even the Medal of honor.
Is that enough? When it comes down to it its just a shiny piece of medal that eventually will go up on a wall but is that truly enough to show honor and reward someone for a brave act (especially when the act leads to a severe injury or even death of the soldier)? Why should there not be an additional money award - say a million dollars for the Medal of honor?
So not only does that soldiers family see a medal showing their ancestors bravery, they also benefit from inheritance.
It used to be like that centuries ago. When say a city was seized the individual soldiers would get a piece of whatever riches were taken.
Or would money take away some of the honor of the award?
They already are. If a person receives a medal, and is cited for extraordinary heroism in combat, they receive an added 10% bonus on retirement pay if they make it to retirement (capped at 75%). So while normally retiement is 50% of base pay, a person so cited would receive 60%. For me, that would have been about an extra $350/month, or $4200/yr. Cite:http://www.corpsman.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-85564.html
Edit. I don’t know why the link is not working for me- here is the URL: http://www.corpsman.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-85564.html
Edit2. It automatically parsed the second URL and that one works but the first one doesn’t, yet they are identical?
I looked it up myself:
Medal of Honor recipients receive the following privileges and special benefits:
A Special Medal of Honor pension of $1,194 per month above and beyond any military pensions or other benefits for which they may be eligible.
Special entitlements to Space “A” air transportation.
Enlisted recipients are entitled to a supplemental uniform allowance.
Commissary and exchange privileges (includes eligible dependents).
Admission to the United States military academies for qualified children of recipients – without nomination and quota requirements.
10 percent increase in retired pay.
Medal of Honor Flag.
Allowed to wear the uniform at anytime as long as the standard restrictions are observed.
Many states offer Medal of Honor automobile license plates.
Interment at Arlington National Cemetery if not otherwise eligible.
Read more: Medal of Honor Means Benefits for Life
MilitaryAdvantage.Military.com
They also get to attend presidential inaugurations and presidential balls.
Best of all, when on base every officer, and I mean every one, has to salute them.
Now personally I do not think this is nearly enough.
You don’t want people on the battle field making decisions based on possible paydays. I’m not saying that in a derogatory way either. A guy is deployed and his family is going through hard times back home paying the bills. He may be more apt to put himself in harms way hoping for an opportunity to earn himself a medal ($$) to help out. As it is right now medals mean very little to most service members, though for enlisted troops they are considered for promotion purposes but not weighted very heavily.
This already happens to some degree. Many MANY guys volunteer to deploy into war zones because of the significant financial benefits that come with it (tax exclusion, hostile fire pay, family sep pay, etc…). When I deployed to AFGN it immediately increased my household income by several thousand dollars/mo.