Living History: How the Medal of Honor Found Its Meaning (Part 1)

In this Living History episode for Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, Dr. Jason Edwards opens a two-part series on the Medal of Honor by stepping back from individual heroes to focus on the medal itself. He traces how a young republic that distrusted decorations created a single combat award in the Civil War, how it was briefly used as a catch-all honor, and how painful reforms and redesigned medals in the Army, Navy, and Air Force slowly forged today’s “above and beyond the call of duty” standard. Along the way, he unpacks the mid-century U.S. Army newsreel The Big Picture, whose polished “company of heroes” narration you can find on YouTube through the Living History edition of Dispatch, and contrasts its marble halls with the messy, human realities behind real citations. This is Part One: the origin story, the symbolism, and the tension between myth and lived courage that sets the stage for the World War II narratives to come.