[Gay State Conservative]

Never having served in combat...or in a theater of combat...I can't speak from personal experience but it seems that his claims,technically speaking,might be valid.Has he seen the same intensity of combat that a Marine or Army grunt might see or that a Navy or Air Force pilot might see? No.But,strictly speaking,I don't think this guy can be called a liar or an “armchair hero”.

[ConorMacNessa]

I don’t believe a Combat Action Ribbon is a personal decoration in any event.

[gate2wire]

Well, although the writer makes some decent points, he calls the Swiftboat vets the “Swiftboat Lyers(sic).” So IMHO, he’s a dick.

[pabianice]

And--I don't think I'm breaking major news here--Navy personnel generally have a fairly low chance of engaging in direct combat.

My shipmates, who died being shot down in Vietnam, would give you a good argument. Schmuck.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

What this guy is saying in the article is true. CARs (Combat Action Ribbons) are supposed to be given out when you individually take enemy fire. I don’t know the story of the U.S.S. Bunker Hill in Desert Storm to know whether they took fire or not.

I actually have a CAR with a star from the Gulf and Beruit. However, what’s funny about that is that when I was in Somalia we took a lot of fire and sometimes returned fire but were not awarded CARs there. We were told that it was because we were on a humantarian mission. Go figure.

Anyways, my point is that I agree with him that the word war hero gets thrown around way too often nowadays. I say this because I have had the priviledge of meeting real war heros. I got the priviledge of hearing MSgt Pittman speak and nearly break down in tears while re-telling how he received the CMH in Viet Nam.

I would consider what John McCain did while being a POW qualifies as a genuine war hero. However, this guy does seem to be puffing up the ole record. He’s not unique though. All politicians puff up the ole record, be it war record or community organizer record. I think that the writer of this article is probably more concerned with having a Democrat elected to office than he is that some Republican is puffing up his war record.

[HIDEK6]

I have a box on a shelf where I keep some spare bits of cloth and metal that the Navy gave me for various things, but it's really not a big deal.

Red flag here, people.

[CholeraJoe]

I didn’t receive any “Combat Action Ribbons” while I was in the USAF, but that doesn’t mean I was never in hostile situations in third-world ratholes. A person is still a veteran whether he or she braved machine gun fire, rescued downed aircrew, tended the sick/wounded or dug latrines.

[Calpernia]

The stick cartoon is way too funny. Probably more funny if you have met Chris Myers.

Series posted at BlueJersey.com