Indiana Congressman Calls Purple Heart Revocation 'Ridiculous'

[leftchick]

http://www.nbc5.com/news/4103696/detail.html

CHICAGO -- During the early days of the Iraqi war, 1st Lt. Dustin Ferrell was riding in a Humvee in a huge convoy with thousands of soldiers on their way to Nasiriyah.

Then, while Ferrell was riding in that convoy in March 2003, he suddenly found himself on the ground.


"The first thing I can really remember is people yelling for me to squeeze their hand to hold on and not close my eyes," Ferrell said.

For his injuries, the Marine Corps awarded Ferrell, who is 26 years old, a Purple Heart. But that Purple Heart has now been revoked, along with 10 others, NBC5's Mary Ann Ahern reported. Ahern spoke with Ferrell in his only television interview.

The driver of the Humvee had been killed, while Ferrell and two others had been seriously injured. Ferrell said he was told he had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

"I was bleeding in my mouth a lot," Ferrell said. "But the first thing I said was, 'Am I going to live?' And everyone said, 'Oh, yeah, you're going to be fine, sir. You're going to be fine, just hold on.'"

[Fleshdancer]

1. I'm pretty sure this does not qualify as supporting the troops

what's next? Telling 1st Lt. Ferrell that he'll have to reimbursed his medical bills?

[cornermouse]

2. I would call the revocation despicable.

Those are serious injuries.

[Tempest]

3. Now this is just perverted

A Marine Corps spokesman told NBC5, "If the injuries did not involve enemy action, he does not rate the Purple Heart. It is very important to preserve the sanctity of the award."


And yet Bush has no problem violating the sanctity of the Medal of Freedom by giving it to three men who are wholly without merit of receiving it.


I hope this gets national attention.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. No it's not. They did it to Kerry

so it is now acceptable to belittle and besmirch combat veterans.
Welcome to Republican values.

[rogue_bandit]

5. Scratch from cat qualify?

"If the injuries did not involve enemy action..."

I thought we were fighting a war on terror. If so, it is not clear who and who is not the enemy. If we were fighting Iraqi's then it would be clear, but otherwise when do we know if the enemy is responsible or not.

Seems to me that a scratch from a local cat could qualify as having involved enemy action.

[iamjoy]

6. Dirty Little "Secret" About Purple Hearts

DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE DISILLUSIONED:

And I may remember it wrong, but during the campaign a vet who supported Kerry told me that some one in the military could get a purple heart for pretty much any injury sustained in combat (with the enemy) if it required medical attention.

AND, the officers like it when their unit get lots of purple hearts, so they kind of push & promote the "award" I think this guy said his barracks were attacked and when he dove for cover, he scraped up his knees and the medic put some cleanser on it and the guy's CO wanted to put him in for a purple heart. The guy thought that it was ridiculous.

I would have been blissfully happy in my niavete - being in awe of anyone who had received a purple heart. Thanks to the SBVs making a stink I just had to ask and am now "enlightened."

[ignatius 2]

8. So what? If you are sent to war and are injured ypu deserve any medal

that the government will hand out cause odds are they are going to fuck you with your benefits when you get home. At least this guy wasn't awol like our glorious leader.

[iamjoy]

9. I Know

I realized that when I got over my disillusionment. Now I'm just pragmatic about it.

[okieinpain]

7. well see we have to do this so people at the repug convention

can wear little purple bandaid's. don't worry the guy only lost a leg or a arm., shit we're going to sending him back to the front line soon anyway.

[d.l.Green]

10. Giving 3,100 Purple Hearts away...

because of "combat" with an unspecified "enemy" is what actually hurts the "sanctity of the award". Defending one's country and attacking a defenseless country without any semblance of their own military are two different matters, this is not combat, this is colonization.

It's heart-wrenching to see the life-altering injuries our soldiers have sustained, and then to watch them treated with little respect when they get back.

[zbdent]

11. Did this guy mention anything about saying something less than

glowing about the way the war was being run?

Wouldn't surprise me that the purple heart might have been the only "medal" this guy had to show for being in the conflict, and, if he opened his mouth, he was stripped of ANY honor he was awarded.

[zbdent]

12. Let's start the rumor that this "stripping" was for "speaking out"

about the war. Not even anything nasty, but just expressing to his CO that he was concerned about not doing the right thing.

How long before Snopes, who been fairly quick about debunking nasty R myths, but kinda slow on debunking D myths, debunks this rumor?