Thomas G. Kelley, Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans' Services, reflected on the meaning of the Medal of Honor yesterday, saying he was bothered by how few Iraq/Afghanistan soldiers have received the award (there are now three). 

Kelley himself received the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War, and was asked by the Boston Herald to comment on yesterday's posthumous award to U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy.

“I don’t want to put myself in the same league with Lt. Murphy, or Sgt. Smith, or Cpl. Dunham,” Kelley said with a customary humility, “but it does seem to me, as well as many of my colleagues in the (Medal of Honor) society, that the criteria now being used to award the medal has been set extraordinarily high. Much higher, I believe, than it was back in my day.”

Kelley says he’s aware of “extraordinary acts of bravery and sacrifice” worthy of the award, made by soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq who barely survived. “There is nothing in the criteria for the medal that states you have to be dead to receive it,” Kelley said. “And frankly, that’s what bothers me as well as the other 108 living members of our society.”

Kelley went on to offer his own idea of why there's been a shortage in recent Medal of Honor recipients.

“There’s a reluctance to remind the country that we happen to be engaged in a war where only a small amount of the population is being asked to pay the price. Truly amazing and valiant things are being done,” Kelley said, “but it’s only the brother soldiers or the families who are truly aware.”

As of July 3, 2007 there are 109 living Medal of Honor Recipients: 34 from WWII; 14 from Korea; and 61 from Vietnam.