Jessica Lynch Awarded Bronze Star !

Kansas City Star ^ | 7/22/2003 | Gavin McCormick

[Polybius]

Why is she getting soooo much press?

Under the exact same circumstances, cute blonde females will always get more attention than any man or an ugly female.

[Thorondir]

You're catching on, my friend. Great job! Let's all be perfectly PC and happy and joyus and agreeable and not get banned like those mean, mean darned conservatives. Now EVERYBODY sing: "This land is your land, this land is my their land..." Group hugs for EVERYONE!!!

[Tailgunner Joe]

But, whatever makes me feel good is a good thing right? That's what the liberals tell me.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Jessica Lynch is so dreamy. I wish I could be half the soldier she is. Our manhood is cheapened by her heroism.

[MEG33]

I leave you to sort it out.It really doesn't matter how you feel.

[ladtx]

She was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious combat service. The key word is meritorious, not valorous service. There is a difference. I have a Bronze Star for meritorious service for the year I spent in Vietnam. I have Air Medals for valorous service for specific actions. She was awarded the Bronze Star just for being in the middle of the crap and being captured, not for any specific valorous action she performed.

[XJarhead]

I don't think that PFC Lynch deserves a drop of blame or criticism for this. She's done absolutely nothing wrong. But the Pentagon and media types make me want to upchuck.

First, its this constant reference to her as "Jessie" or "Jessica". She's PFC LYNCH. If she (and apparently lots of others) didn't earn the specific medals they were awarded, the very least they earned is the right to be addressed by their military rank. She's not "Oprah" or "Michael" or "Kobe" or "Madonna" or "Leonardo", or "Tiger" anyone else whom the media has dubbed as recognizable by first name only. She's PFC Lynch.

And its not just the media types doing this. I remember the circus the Pentagon PR types created when her jet arrived from Germany. The headlines were all about how "Jessie" was returning from the war. Then you maybe got a parenthetical reference to the other 49 combat vets on that flight who also were returning home. Must have made them feel great to know that they weren't nearly as important as "Jessie".

It was all topped off by some paper-shuffling major who made the public statement to the media about "Jessie" returning to the U.S. Wonderful. Here we have a major buying wholesale into the media hype, and robbing her of the dignity of her rank. Friggin' REMF's.

I feel rather badly for Lynch. By all accounts, she's a good kid, and there are going to be people who view her as some sort of ooportunist because of how others are overhyping her story. My guess is that she feels neither heroic nor particularly brave, just guilty and sad over the deaths of her friends in that convoy. I just hate it when stuff like this gets trivialized in popular culture.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Hey, at least it makes people feel good. We all know its our feelings that count.

[Thorondir]

ARGGGGGH! (biting my tongue into a bloody mass of PC garbage here so my post doesn't get pulled) Gosh, Sir, that post of yours is really scary! It makes me want to shout, YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT AND HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD! But I, of course, would never post anything so un-PC and conservative as that! Goodness no! (nothing to pull, ban or get upset about here, guys) Can't we all just get along? Put on a black beret, sir, and feel happy and special. In fact, put three of them on, you deserve each and every one of them. Wow! I think if every American would just wear FOUR black berets on their heads, our nation's enemies would realize that General Shitsackee is a huge military genious and they would just lay down their arms and join us in a massive world group hug! Yadda yadda! Oh, and blah blah!

Muslims = Good.
Illegal aliens = very good!
Mean people suck!

[samanella]

Wonder if Ol' Sheets Byrd has contacted her and thanked her for her sacrifice for her country????

[XJarhead]

Thanks. The person to whom this is the most unfair is Lynch herself. She's done absolutely nothing wrong, but the truth is that she's being treated differently because she's a young female. A young male in this situation would be referred to by his rank, and given whatever military respect his ordeal earned him. She's really getting shortchanged on that by being turned into a pretty blond media creation. She's not a soldier who suffered an ordeal. She's "Jessie", the pretty blonde West Virginian farm girl.

I'm not a fan of women in combat, and as a USNA grad, I'm not a proponent of women in the Academies. But if one is in the military and does her job, she at least deserves the respect her service earns. Something else is happening here, and I think its demeaning.

[Thorondir]

(Biting my tongue again! Nothing to pull here. Nothing to ban here.) She's a hero of the first order. We don't NEED to know what happened there. Nobody does, especially those handing out the bronze stars. It's just the right thing to do. Happy happy joy joy! After all, she had a bad time and we just HAVE TO make everybody feel good. you should get a medal too, sir. Then you might feel better and realize the critical national defense benefits of having non-hackers in the academies. Pat Shroeder says so! Now how about a group hug? Then you might stop posting all those unPC truths that get everybody so upset.

Goodbye, Sabertooth. Goodbye, Marine Inspector. Goodbye, all you other conservative guys & gals.

[xm177e2]

Wonder if Ol' Sheets Byrd has contacted her and thanked her for her sacrifice for her country????

She DID make a real sacrifice for her country. She enlisted, she was sent to a faraway place with crappy weather and a substantial number of baddies. She performed her duties as ordered, as best as she could. It's not her fault she was in a crash, there is nothing dishonorable or even less-than-optimal about her performance. She was wounded, captured by the enemy(!), rescued, and then spent months recovering from her injuries. She doesn't deserve a Bronze Star for what she did, but she doesn't deserve scorn either. She is a hero, like all of the other soldiers who went to Iraq and did their duty there.

[ex1630]

James Webb was decorated with the NAVY CROSS

[samanella]

I noticed in her speech she thanked Sen. Jay-Baby Rockefeller, but did not mention Sheets Byrd...LOL!

[Gunrunner2]

That 60% of male POWs were sexually assaulted is bogus.

Sec AF Widnall was very interested in demonstrating the "if it can happen to women (rape), it can happen to men" adage. If she could prove this then that takes the sting out of the emotive issue of women POWs being raped and advances the cause of women in combat.

Perhaps 60% of male POWs were sexually assaulted in that their genitalia were zapped by electricity or abused by other painful methods. This is likely where that data comes from, and not that the men were "raped," as is inferred when it is alleged men were "sexually assaulted."

Widnall gave up the struggle when it was proved that, other than one British Pilot, male POW rape did not occur.

[brooklin]

I don't know, but I don't think that being in a truck that turns the wrong way and then being injured from the firefight, that you didn't help in, warrants the bronze star. She probably deserves it as much as all the medal winners in desert storm.

[isthisnickcool]

As best I can tell, she ain't pinning medals on her own chest. Anyone that has a problem with anything she has been awarded should take it up with the folks giving her the medals.

She was badly hurt and I hope she gets over her injuries.