Posted on 04/11/2003 11:36:58 PM PDT by flutters
West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw is sending letters to President Bush and the state's congressional representatives to encourage the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the 19-year-old former prisoner of war from Palestine.
"It's clear to me that she demonstrates the characteristics of an American hero," McGraw said.
Lynch, a supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company, was rescued April 1 from a hospital in Nasiriyah. She had been taken prisoner March 23 after her convoy took a wrong turn and was ambushed by Iraqi forces.
Reports said Lynch fired on her attackers and fought fiercely before being captured.
She has been treated for a head wound, injury to her spine and fractures to her right arm, both legs and right foot and ankle.
"It's just absolutely heart-stopping," McGraw said.
"It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear a story about it."
"While many others have served with great honor and distinction in our struggle in Iraq, I believe that the bravery shown by Pfc. Lynch and the impact her conduct had upon the morale of our troops and the mood of our nation qualifies her for this high honor," said McGraw.
The Medal of Honor was made a permanent decoration by Congress in 1863. It is the "highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States," according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
More than 3,400 Medals of Honor have been presented, according to the U.S. Army.
Only one woman has ever been awarded the Medal of Honor. Mary Walker, the first American woman to be a military doctor and a prisoner of war, received the medal in 1866 for her service during the Civil War.
I'm not the one who wrote....
"This fact would perhaps argue that Jessica earns something beyond a $25 Purple Heart."
A "twenty five dollar Purple Heart"?
Is that all you think that DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet's father believed he got from America? A $25 trinket?
Yes, I know that the awards process is not fair and that awards are often awarded for political motives. Yes, other medals may be in order for Pfc. Lynch. Yes, I know that countless of servicemembers got no medals for actions that deserved them and a lesser number of other servicemembers got medals for actions that did not deserve them.
However, that is no excuse for individuals such as DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet's relative to cruelly taunt her father, an individual that earned his Purple Heart, that Purple Hearts were meaningless awards and other individuals to denigrate his award by calling it nothing more than $25 worth of merchandise.
No, you may not assume whether I do or do not any more than you can assume what my opinion on that medal award is. The simple fact is that I did not divulge what my opinion regarding that matter was in that post or any other post.
As noted in other posts, I questioned Smedley as to what point he was trying to make with his "lobbying" remarks. I have no idea what "lobbying" Smedley is for or against or why he even brought up such an issue.
Since Smedley posted this example without editorial comment, I asked him if he subscribed to either of the two major opinion camps in that matter in hopes of trying to figure out what point he is trying to argue.
My opinion is that the merits of that particular award cannot be argued with any credibility by any of us on this forum as none of us on this forum had a need to know, and therefore don't know, that particular crew's rules of engagement.
I agree, based on currently-known information. It is possible she performed to CMOH standards, but that would require independently verified/corroborated evidence of bravery and gallantry of an order of magnitude higher than what we presently have.
It cost his blood, his hearing, and living his life with Japanese shrapnel lodged too close to his spine to be removed, threatening his ability to walk for the duration of his life.
Yeah, I need to add my two cents here, too.
I’m certainly no expert on military medals, but I do know that we all owe your father and so many others like him everything that we now take for granted in our lives.
Even those of us who have merely read of Iwo Jima know why it occupies such a special place in our history. It was not just another battle. Your father willingly gave this country all that you mention and more. Like everyone else on that island at that time, your father willingly offered to give this country absolutely everything. Absolutely everything. That's the kind of test that most of us never face.
Hell, most of us become resentful when we get a notice for jury duty.
(And, BTW, those of us who know you know that that wasn’t your father’s last gift to this country.)
I agree, but let's remember not to blame PFC Lynch or her family for his circus. It's the media types who made the trek to Palestine, W.Va., camped outside their door, asked stupid questions, pitched movie scripts and generally created all this hoopla. It's so undignified and exploitative.
Read this thread, maybe I was wrong.........maybe not.
In your opinion, should every solider who fired a weapon and was wounded, receive more than a Purple Heart? I'm not trying to be rude, just curious about how you would treat the other soliders.
Concerning the crew that received medals for giving their aircraft to the Chinese...At the time, I was very much against that, and remain so today. Giving medals for not doing your duty cheapens the efforts of others.
My suggestion to another person here on this thread was that perhaps one needed experience and or knowledge of the intelligence gathering service to better view awarding of medals.
Four years ago, I was a guest of NSA for presentation of medals to an aircraft crew that had been shotdown by the Russians in 1952. All of those years our government denied that they had been caught over Russia, the military said they were merely missing on a routine training mission. No medals, nothing.
This crew did what was expected of them, they turned out over the Sea of Japan and the Russian jets sent them into the water. They did their job. No medals, none expected for such a job and none given. I can tell you this, at the time I benefitted from the work of that crew and others like them, thus I was at NSA, with Senators, Congressmen and the military when a handful of surviving family members were presented with medals awarded to those men.
I also alluded to the Silver Star being given to Lyndon Johnson. That affair is a perfect example of how the facts can be distorted to award a medal if that is the desired objective. Johnson was a passenger, received a Silver Star, odd that the crew members recived nothing.
I was trying to impart that indeed handing out medals like candy does indeed cheapen the medals rightfully earned.
I will stand with Audie Murphy or whoever said it, "The only heros are the ones that did not return". My brother never came back, awarded a Purple Heart, Lyndon Johnson received the Silver Star for nothing, need I say who I think was a hero?
It always reminder of what Service to Country was all about.
Incorrect. 22 members of the crew received Air Medals. Osborn and Mellos received MSMs.
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