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CHICAGO — The men who were there that day say they could see the options flicker across Michael Monsoor's face: save himself or save the men he had long considered brothers.

He chose them.

In the span of just seconds, on a rooftop in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Monsoor watched the enemy grenade bounce to the ground. The 25-year-old Navy SEAL assessed that it likely would kill all three of his nearby comrades, men with wives and small children. He screamed, "Grenade!" then hurled himself on top of the explosive and bore the brunt of its lethal blast.

In the time since Monsoor's actions Sept. 29, many in the military community have linked the death of the young man and others like him to what they view as another tragedy associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: the Pentagon's delay in awarding the nation's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, to those most deserving of it. It has yet to be announced whether Monsoor, already decorated with a Silver Star and a Bronze Star from previous battles, will posthumously be awarded the medal.

The Medal of Honor issue, championed by a number of combat veterans from previous wars as well as recently retired military officers, has garnered enough debate and attention that the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine the way military awards are being handled by the Defense Department.

The Pentagon itself has launched a full-scale, all-branch review of its award system. And those involved at the highest levels of the Medal of Honor award process are promising that "a number" of Medal of Honor nominations are nearing final review and approval.

"This war has yet to tell its story entirely," Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, cautioned on Friday.

Still, some statistics illustrate the ongoing debate:

In five years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, just two Medals of Honor have been granted. Historically, no war lasting this long has produced fewer Medals of Honor.

Acts of bravery once considered clear-cut cases for the medal, such as intentionally absorbing the blast of a grenade, are going unawarded or delayed by years of investigation.

And compared to previous wars, when many Medal of Honor recipients survived their acts of valor, both medals awarded from the Iraq war came posthumously, contributing to what critics fear is an at-war generation devoid of acknowledged military heroes.

Compared to wars past, two Medals of Honor from Iraq initially might seem low, but Pentagon officials are quick to offer explanations: Wars no longer are fought between armed formations along front lines, and there often is a greater distance between American troops and their enemies. Even more, they argue, wars have exponentially fewer troops on the ground; World War II, for example, had millions of Americans in combat; the U.S. force in Iraq numbers about 139,000.

Joseph Kinney, a Vietnam veteran who is to be the first witness before the House Armed Services Committee, plans to recommend that posthumous Medals of Honor be granted within 72 hours of a death in combat and within 30 days of the act to living members.

The Pentagon is almost certain to push back. Carr said Friday that nominations go through rigorous investigation and any conflicting details of witness stories must be studied.

"Frequently things are not as straightforward as one might think," Carr said, adding that wrongly awarding any Medals of Honor would besmirch the history of the award and all who have received it.