24, Once Overlooked, Now Honored With Nation’s Highest Military Award

At long last, a decade-old effort to right a wrong caused by institutional discrimination within the Defense Department will come to fruition as 24 servicemen, including 18 from ethnic minorities, will receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Among the recipients will be the uncle of pop sensation Lenny Kravitz…

thanks to a former soldier who probed bias in medal awards.

Army Sgt. Alfred Nietzel of Queens died in 1944 in Heistern, Germany, and Pfc. Leonard Kravitz of Brooklyn was killed seven years later in Yangpyong, Korea.

Both were awarded their branch’s second-highest honor: the Distinguished Service Cross.

After his unit’s machine gunner was severely wounded, Kravitz, 21, manned the weapon and swept the battlefield with fire, mowing down Chinese troops and drawing others toward him so his platoon could retreat.

The next day Kravitz’s unit reclaimed the position and found his lifeless body.

“Lenny was a guy who would do anything for his friend, but he was a good quiet guy, not a killer type guy,” said Libman, now 83 and living in Hollywood, Fla.

Libman called the ratio “ridiculous” and a clear indication of anti-Semitism in the review process.

He enlisted the help of former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), who pushed a 2001 law requiring review of Jewish and Hispanic troops’ valor citations.

Prior reviews of Asian-American and African-American citations resulted in an additional 28 Medals of Honor being awarded.

The new review found 18 such cases including Kravitz, plus six more in which soldiers who weren’t Jewish or Hispanic merited the high honor. …

The 24 men — all but three of whom died on the battlefield — will be honored by President Obama March 18 at the White House.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.