Secretary Gates announced that the Department of Defense will, beginning October 1, 2009, issue the Medal of Honor to each soldier, airman, Marine, and sailor who has successfully completed 10 days of initial entry training (IET).
"This measure reflects the spirit of the day and recognizes that any of our personnel have it in them to achieve greatness on the battlefield." Press spokesmen also stated that in light of the prestige of the award, the department will save significant sums of money by cancelling all other awards and decorations.
The awards are going out to the first recipients already. As one PV2 sporting his new medal in basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, already walking with the sick, lame, and lazy with no evident illness or injury, stated:
Some of our drill sergeants are kind of peeved, but I think it's because this isn't retroactive. But they're just jealous about all that "achievement and never quitting stuff" they've been telling us. I've been kind of shamming up until now, but I could totally throw myself on a grenade to save my buddies now. Well, maybe next week I'll start that. It does look cool, doesn't it?
It's a challenge to all our new recruits, really.
