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I have some perspective on this too.

As I explained, my father nearly died on Iwo Jima. Like Pfc. Lynch, he did what was expected of him. Like Lynch, his survival was part personal effort, and part miracle.

Whatever you think a Purple Heart is worth, it was worth something far more than $25 to my father in February of 1945.

For him, the cost was high.

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.

I still think your crack about it being a twenty-five dollar medal - and your subsequent suggestion that Lynch, a soldier whose valor extends not beyond her own fight for survival (as far as we know) deserves so much more than something you apparently think is nothing but a cheap token or trinket - was disrespectful to every person who ever bled for one, on more than one level.

Even the "lowly" Purple Heart ought to mean something, damn it.

Thank God that to some, it still does.

For him, the cost was high.

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.)