On Memorial Day 1984, President Ronald Reagan presented the Medal of Honor to the allegedly unidentified remains of an American serviceman the Pentagon had chosen to be interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns as the Vietnam Unknown Soldier.

Today, the U.S. government wants to strip that medal and honor away from the Vietnam Unknown because he was recently identified as Air Force First Lieutenant Michael Blassie.

The Medal of Honor is the highest military award and is normally presented by the President in the name of Congress to a person while in service to the United States "who distinguishes himself or herself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy force."

Usually, the medal is awarded only after the recipient has been nominated by his or her commanders and whose heroic deeds were witnessed by others. The origin of the Medal of Honor goes back to the Civil War. Since then, only 3,428 Medals of Honor have been authorized. As of March 24, 1998, there are 165 recipients of this highest honor still living.

In order for the Medal of Honor to be awarded to an Unknown Soldier, whose actions in combat or deeds of valor would obviously be unknown, Congress had to create and pass a special law authorizing the President to make the presentation.

In the case of the Vietnam Unknown, Congress passed such a special authorization (Public law H.R. 5515) just a few days prior to the Vietnam Unknown being interred. The law reads: "A bill to authorize the President to award the Medal of Honor to the unknown American who lost his life while serving in the Armed Forces of the United States in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era and who has been selected to be buried in the Memorial Amphitheather at Arlington National Cemetery."

Earlier this year, four years after the U.S. Veteran Dispatch printed a story identifying the remains interred in the Tomb of the Vietnam Unknown as belonging to Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, a Pentagon panel suggested an exhumation of the remains for DNA testing.

On July 8, an Armed Forces Identification Review Board certified a finding by DNA experts that the Vietnam Unknown was Lt. Blassie. He had served as the Vietnam Unknown for 14 years.

A military honor guard picked up the remains on July 9 from an Air Force mortuary at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. and drove them to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to be returned to his family in St. Louis, Missouri. Lt. Blassie was buried again with full military honors in a national cemetery in St. Louis on July 10.

Lt. Blassie’s family says that the Medal of Honor presented to him when his unidentified remains were interred as the Vietnam Unknown should remain with him, and I agree.

Secretary Of Defense William Cohen says he does not favor leaving the nation’s highest honor with Lt. Blassie. Cohen pointed out that Lt. Blassie had been posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Lt. Blassie was killed when his A37 attack jet was shot down during a heated battle over An Loc, South Vietnam on May 11, 1972

Representatives of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) say their organizations oppose Lt. Blassie’s family having the medal because Lt. Blassie had not been nominated by his commanders for "performing high acts of valor."

"What would be nice is if the family withdrew the request," Phil Budahn of the American Legion told USA Today. "Their loved one is a hero to them and to many of us. But the Medal of Honor is something very, very special and it simply was not awarded to this particular hero." The American Legion and VFW are missing the point.

President Reagan awarded the Medal of Honor to the American serviceman who was serving as the Unknown Soldier from the Vietnam War, and that was Lt. Blassie. Besides, there is a precedent where at least one other Medal of Honor was awarded for meritorious service instead of valor.

During the Civil War, upon the recommendation of Major Generals Sherman and Thomas, Dr. Mary E. Walker received the Medal of Honor because of her "valuable service to the government" while assigned to duty as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, Kentucky.

Dr. Walker’s medal was rescinded in 1917 along with 910 others because, according to a special government panel, their deeds did not meet the criteria of "gallantry at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against the enemy."

President Jimmy Carter restored the Medal of Honor to Dr. Walker in 1977 after being encouraged to do so by women’s advocacy groups. Ironically, credible reports indicate that when Pentagon officials chose the Vietnam Unknown in 1984, they knew that the remains were probably those of Lt. Blassie.

During the last decade, those same officials have used less circumstantial evidence than was available to identify Lt. Blassie (and no DNA tests) to write off hundreds of other missing in action servicemen as identified.

While Lt. Blassie was serving as the Unknown, his family suffered the pains of not knowing whether he was dead or held prisoner by the Communist Vietnamese. To strip the Medal of Honor from Lt. Blassie would not only be a dishonor to him and his family, it would also dishonor the unknown soldiers from World War I, World War II and Korea whose remains are still serving in the Tomb of the Unknowns.

In the early 1980s, the Reagan administration pressured the Pentagon to add a set of remains from the Vietnam War to the Tomb of the Unknowns. White House officials claimed that this gesture was an overdue act of reconciliation and display of support for the POW/MIA accounting process.

Pentagon officials, unable to find what they considered unidentifiable remains, chose the remains which had been tentatively identified as those of Michael Blassie and destroyed accompanying documentation that linked him to the remains.

Lt. Blassie’s remains were re-designated as X-26 and were sent to Washington. On May 25, 1984, the X-26 remains lay in state at the Capitol where for three days, an estimated 250,000 people filed past the coffin to pay their respects.

The remains were transported by caisson to the cemetery on May 28, stopping briefly at the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial where an unofficial honor guard of Vietnam veterans attached themselves to the procession.

Ten years after the burial, Lt. Blassie’s sister Pat read the article I wrote in the U.S. Veteran Dispatch which identified her brother as the Vietnam Unknown. She contacted the Air Force but was told there was nothing to substantiate the claim.

Last year, CBS News picked up the article off the U.S. Veteran Dispatch’s internet archives. Producer Vince Gonzales conducted an eight month investigation which led CBS to conclude that not only were the remains in the Tomb of the Unknowns those of Lt. Blassie, but that the Pentagon had known it all along.

After several major CBS news broadcasts about Lt. Blassie, Secretary Cohen followed the advice of a specially appointed Pentagon panel and ordered the Unknown’s remains exhumed for DNA testing. The DNA findings were described by officials as 99.9 percent certain that the Vietnam Unknown was Lt. Blassie.

The Medal of Honor was awarded to Lt. Blassie. The Pentagon should not be allowed to take that honor away from him.