And folks wonder why those wounded in combat by enemy fire throw theirs in the sock drawer and forget it. The purple durple ceased being a combat wounded award long ago, like when John Kerry (who also served in Vietnam) had to get rice grains dug out of his ass from his carelessness with a thumper.
My dad got sent back to the states from Bougainville (marine WW2). He got filariasis. Guess he could say he was stabbed by a mosquito.
Many years ago A work acquaintance told me how he got his purple heart. He was part of a helicopter crew. The minigun jammed. Back in The barracks he was lying on his bunk reading. The mechanic spun the barrels of the minigun to clear it. One round went off. Going threw the barracks wall Hitting the guy on his bunk in the ass. (Fleshy part).
My grandfather was involved in a bad USN gunnery accident during WW2. 5 inch gun malfunctioned during a test and fired into the stack of his destroyer. Killed a bunch of his shipmates and wounded him bad enough with shrapnel that he set off airport metal detectors for the rest of his life.
He would talk about combat but never about that accident. But no PH for that.