WP: Revocation of Medals Adds Insult to Marines' Injuries

[kskiska]

Service Members Shamed by Incident

Tuesday, February 8, 2005; Page A01

The story of Marine Staff Sgt. Robert Arellano's wound is not exactly heroic. He was sitting in a tent in southern Iraq when the 9mm handgun he was repairing went off, sending a bullet through his left leg.

That's why his heart sank in spring 2003, when he heard that he would receive the Purple Heart as he recovered at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

Protests to superior officers were brushed aside.

"I told them I didn't think I deserved it," said Arellano, 38, of Oceanside, Calif. The thought of wearing a medal he didn't earn "was eating me alive."

Then a letter arrived two months ago making things even worse. The Purple Heart pinned on him nearly two years earlier had been "an administrative error" because his wound was not "caused directly or indirectly by enemy action." Ten other Marines who sustained noncombat injuries got the same news, from the office of the commandant of the Marine Corps.

For a branch of the service that considers itself the most rigorous in the awarding of medals, such revocations are exceptionally rare, according to military historians and veterans. And for the 11 Marines, this was a final indignity added to the shattered bones, crushed intestines and broken teeth they suffered in a war zone.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6334-2005Feb7.html

[whistle]

1. Pentagon brain fart....

[pocket]

2. purple heart is for enemy action only

self-inflicted or accidental doesn't count.

[LynnTheDem]

3. Not exactly true.

It's for ANY wounds sustained DURING enemy action; that includes self-inflicted & accidental wounds.

Example; if you fire a weapon at an enemy and get hit by your own ricochet, you are entitled to a PH.

Edit to add: blue-on-blue wounds {"friendly fire") are also eligible for PHs.

[TacticalPeek]

4. IIRC, Bob Dole has such a Purple Heart.

Or maybe it was his nearby buddies? :)

[bvar22]

5. Yes, Bob Dole blew himself...

....up by bouncing a grenade off a tree.
He received a Purple Heart.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Yeppers; PH by tree ricochet attack.

And Dole displayed his keen love of utter immoral ammoral hypocrisy with his criticizing of Kerry for the US Navy's rules for awarding PHs.

[atreides1]

8. Sorry but You're not quite correct

Paragraph 2-8, AR 600-8-22(Military Awards), 25 February,1995

1)In any action against an enemy of the United States

2)In any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country
in which the Armed Forces of the United States are or have been
engaged.

3)While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed
conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United
States is not a belligerent party.

4)As a result of an act of any such enemy of opposing armed forces.

5)As the result of any attack of any hostile foreign force.


Examples of injuries or wounds which clearly do not qualify for award of the Purple Heart are as follows:

(g)Accidents, to include explosive, aircraft, vehicular, and other
accidental wounding not related to or caused by enemy action.

(h)Self-inflicted wounds, except when in the heat of battle, and not involving gross negligence.

Under (h) Bob Dole would not have been entitled to his Purple Heart.

[mudderfudder77]

9. Except that...

Doles was in the heat of battle and was not due to "gross negligence".

[atreides1]

12. Subject to Interpretation

Gross negligence is one of those terms that does not have a consistent meaning to everybody.

Personally throwing a hand grenade, without at least trying to make sure that there isn't something that might be in the way is kind of stupid. The plus side is that he didn't kill himself, and that the grenade didn't roll back far enough to wound or kill anyone else in his squad.

If it had, would you concede that it was gross negligence?

[LynnTheDem]

10. Sorry but you are not quite correct. Read your own post again...

-Accidents, to include explosive, aircraft, vehicular, and other
accidental wounding not related to...enemy action.

-Self-inflicted wounds, except when in the heat of battle

Dole was indeed entitled to his PH.

Friendly fire, accidents, and self-inflicted wounds DURING (direct or indirect) ENEMY ACTION most certainly do qualify for PH.

[atreides1]

11. Where Was The Enemy Action

He was repairing his weapon, there was no report of any ENEMY ACTION,
when the pistol fired.

Add to the fact that the Staff Sergeant in the story, didn't feel that he was entitled to the medal.

[LynnTheDem]

13. We're talking about Bob Dole, NOT the soldier in the OP.

The soldier in the OP is not entitled to a PH; no one is arguing with that.

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. Maybe The Repukes Can Cheer Him Up

By offering him a purple heart band-aid