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Give heroes their due

On the day President Barack Obama awarded just the sixth Medal of Honor since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, all of them posthumous honors, Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that soon the nation’s highest recognition for combat valor could be given to a living recipient.

Frankly, it is long overdue. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the only ones in modern history for which no Medal of Honor was awarded to a living recipient. And for those wars, the rate of awards for the top two valor decorations, the Medal of Honor and the service crosses, has been less than one-twentieth that of any conflict in the past 100 years.

In August, Cpl. Richard S. Weinmaster became the third Marine pinned with a Navy Cross for actions in Afghanistan. A member of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, out of Twentynine Palms, Calif., Weinmaster was not even a year into his enlistment when the baby-faced private first class was sent to Helmand province in 2008. Violence there was up — way up — and by the end of its tour, 2/7 would sustain more fatalities, 20, than any other Marine unit for the year.

Weinmaster’s squad was on foot July 8, patrolling the province’s Sangin District, when it was ambushed. Out of nowhere, two grenades landed nearby. He dashed toward the one closest and, as it exploded, shielded his team leader and several other Marines.

Sprayed with shrapnel, some of which still is lodged in his brain today, Weinmaster continued to fight the enemy until he was overcome by pain and blood loss, and collapsed. Several of his comrades say he saved their lives that day. Miraculously he, too, survived.

On the battlefield, he selflessly, heroically, risked his life to save others. In an earlier era, he might have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Heroes today are every bit as brave as those of the past, but death somehow has become the standard for the highest valor award. That’s wrong and it has to change, now.