President Barack Obama will award the country’s highest military honor to 24 veterans who were found to have been passed over for the award because of long-standing prejudices against minorities.
The ceremony, scheduled for next month, will award the Medal of Honor to mostly Jewish and Hispanic veterans after a congressionally mandated review found many of them had been passed over for the medal, reports the Associated Press.
The National Defense Authorization act passed by Congress in 2002 required the Army to conduct the review, which looked at the cases of the 6,505 recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War .
The review found eight Vietnam veterans, nine Korean war veterans, and seven World War II veterans deserving of the higher honor. Only three of the recipients are still living.
[AP]
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