A fact from Thomas Payne (soldier) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 October 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Thomas Patrick Payne received the US Medal of Honor for the heroism he displayed five years ago today while liberating hostages during the offensive against ISIL in northern Iraq?
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According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and the U.S. Army Center of Military History websites, there are 65 living Medal of Honor recipients as of September 2023. Of those, only 4 are listed by those sources and on Wikipedia as being still on active duty: Lieutenant Colonel William D. Swenson, Sergeant Major Thomas Payne, Sergeant Major Matthew O. Williams, and Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee. I have been running search after search and found no source explicitly, word-for-word stating only these four are on active duty, but with just 65 living recipients of the award, a fifth would be really difficult to miss.
Does anyone have any source material for this? Ideas on where to find that? Short of directly contacting the CMOHS and asking for a memorandum affirming this, I do not know how else to verify that these 4 are the only MOH recipients on active duty. AC9016 (talk) 01:53, 6 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
