"The progression of the Medal of Honor, from an award intended to stimulate "efficiency" in the Navy to something only for those who have utterly disregarded their own lives for the sake of others, was something that could never have come to pass only by passage of laws and issuance of regulations. The Medal of Honor has been infused with a sanctity by the recipients themselves. During the Second World War, for the first time, more awards of the Medal of Honor were made to the dead than to the living. The same was true in Korea and Vietnam. If the Medal of Honor today has an intangible and solemn halo around it, it is partly due to those men who did not survive to wear it. The survivors who wear the medal frequently acknowledge this. They very rarely speak of glory, preferring instead to speak simply of their immense gratitude. As of this writing, there are 3,456 Medal of Honor recipients. Of those, only 147 are alive today."