[middie]

It should be a misdemeanor with a $100 fine for anyone to use the term "win" in conjunction with the awarding of military commendations for either wounds or valor---or, for that matter for performance as well. One does not "win" a Purple Heart" or "DFC" or "Navy Cross." The performance of duty and the undertaking of conduct that meets the criteria for receipt of such recognition is not a contest or exercise to win anything.

Those who receive these commendations and awards do so as an earned recognition of that degree of valor and fidelity to duty and his brothers-in-arms and mission accomplishment in excess of the norm of acceptable service.

To describe a recipient as a "winner" is to render an insult. To be sure, it is probably an innocent and unintended insult, but an insult, innocent or malicious, is an insult nonetheless.

[texasflower]

That term bothered me also.

[rabidralph]

It's a common mistake made by journalists. Just another in a long list of sloppy writing and error-in-fact reporting from our "watchdogs."