[quote=Foster]
If you can decide how bad the fighting in an area was by how many medals of honor resulted from it... New Guinea was pretty bad.-I think we handed out 12 of them. Doesn't sound like much until you remember that the US forces sent there didn't get into many history-books.Which is one of the downsides of having multiple smaller engagements happening in and around and/or supporting a larger one, especially in a protracted war, such small actions seldom get noticed...[/quote]
Thanks for that. I do appreciate reading military history. It is my favorite subject. Have been doing so for most of my life.
That Centralized planning/Decentralized execution which the 32nd ID performed in New Guinea is exactly the sort of operation the US got into in Vietnam and were up until recently performing in Afghanistan. Yes, small fire fights don't get the headlines. Events like the 7th Cavalry at Ia Drang Valley make the headlines. Primarily because it was the battle with the highest American casualty total up until that time of the war (1965). It was also a Battalion (+) sized operation. The Tet Offensive gets the press because it was decentralized execution that occurred on teh same day all over the country.

What you say about the MoH is speaks volumes. Those things aren't handed out very frequently. For one division to receive 12 for one campaign speaks volumes.