Martin, I see the Victorian Cross Citation does not shy from including measurements in SI: e.g. "30 tonne Warrior"; "route of some 1,500 metres"; and "7.62mm bullet."
There is no good reason the official written citation for the US Medal of Honor can not also include SI units of measurement! Thanks Jim (Frysinger) for explaining the two accounts of Will Swenson's Award; spoken account (with units), and written official citation (without units). Eugene Mechtly ________________________________________ From: Martin Vlietstra [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 12:41 PM To: mechtly, eugene a; 'U.S. Metric Association' Subject: RE: [USMA:53337] RE: Ceremony in Meters There was a similar incident in the UK when Private Behaney was awarded the VC in Iraq a few years ago: Official Citation: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/57587/supplements/3369 ("1500 metres") BBC Report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4358921.stm ("one mile") -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mechtly, eugene a Sent: 18 October 2013 17:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association; mechtly, eugene a Subject: [USMA:53337] RE: Ceremony in Meters A complete video of the Award Ceremony of the Medal of Honor to Captain Swenson is posted at WashingtonPost.com. In this video, President Obama describes actions by "Will Swenson" at a distance of 50 meters, and actions by Will at a distance of 20 or 30 meters. The "official citation" for the Award states *no* distances, in meters or in any other unit of distance. Why did Obama's account included statements of distances in meters, but the official citation gave *no* distances? Both accounts probably originated somewhere in the Department of Defense. Eugene Mechtly ________________________________________ From: Paul Trusten [[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2013 4:11 PM Cc: U.S. Metric Association; mechtly, eugene a Subject: Re: [USMA:53328] Ceremony in Meters I think the President may have been simply reading a text prepared for him by the Defense Department, but I guess we can give him credit for not back-converting. Paul Trusten, Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Midland, Texas, USA +1(432)528-7724 www.metric.org [email protected] > On Oct 15, 2013, at 16:09, "mechtly, eugene a" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Today, Captain William D. Swenson was awarded the Medal of Honor. > > In describing Will's heroic actions under fire, President Obama used > the word "meters" several times, with *no conversions* to any units of distance outside the SI. > > Of course, as we all know, US military personnel already speak "meters" with fluency. > > Fortunately, President Obama displayed a willingness to accept the meter as the preferred unit of distance. > > Unfortunately, many commentators in the news media are not so inclined to speak the word meter. > > They remain misguided by the Associated Press Style Guide, studiously avoiding the word meter. > > Watch and listen to the Aware Ceremony, in meters, when it is rebroadcast. > > Eugene Mechtly > >
