* ping *
What is the holdup. If their Commanders send in the reports and they are eligible for these medals they should be given as soon as possible.
Don't fall for this pap.
This is agitprop from newsweek to sow
discontent. Watch your back's people,
the revolutionary socialist democrat party
is moving to make up the time they have
lost for six years and the socialist
juggernaut is blowing an ill wind...
when you look at the conduct of the war, the Haditha and Hamandia prosecutions, the rules of engagement, now this nonsense - I'm telling you, there is some cabal of clinton holdovers inside the pentagon and the military hierarchy.
I have been told by soldiers coming back that Battalion Commanders and up are refusing to award the deserving...common theme heard; "junior enlisted are not going to receive Silver Stars or Bronze Stars with "V"..."
hey, when my husbands unit returned from the Iraq all the Battalion commanders were awarded Bronze Stars...
Any stats for an accurate comparison? If you compared the number of men in combat between World War II and the Iraq war, the numbers don't seem particularly low. Or compare combat fatalities as a measure of risk.
I'll try to pull some real numbers later this evening.
A specific comment on the jumping on grenades. Max Cleland did that. Does he deserve an MoH? He got a Silver Star and a Bronze Star, I'm not sure what he got for the grenade, and what he got for other acts.
This ain't Vietnam. It's not the Pusan perimeter. It is not Bastonge or Tarawa. We're occupying a country where there are many terrorists. It is dangerous, and there is some fighting, but most of the dying is not done by remote control. It's tough to justify the Silver Star, Navy Cross or CMOH in this environment. There are PLENTY of Bronze Star w/V-devices being awarded.
Seriously. "Newsweek"? You trust them?
Here are some numbers (rounded):
World War II
Total military force: 16.3 million
Combat Deaths: 292,000
Deaths/month 6,639
Viet Nam
Total force: 8.7 million
Combat deaths: 47,000
Deaths/month: 526
Based on the numbers, it doesn't look like MoH levels for Iraq are out of line.
Of course, there are always some undeserved medals given.
Some months ago Army Times ran a story about this with statisics for the various branches of the service (this week's edition also has some awards stats): the one thing that struck me was that the Navy has awarded about a dozen Navy Crosses while the Army has given out three DSCs (but a lot more Silver Stars). Even taking into account that most of those Navy Crosses go to Marines, there is still a serious disparity there. As for my Cav Squadron, all the leadership got meritorious Bronze Stars (to include platoon leaders, troop commanders, first sergeants and many platoon sergeants) but not a single award for valor that I know of. We spent a year in theater and had five killed. Combat in Iraq is different than previous wars, but you can't tell me that some of our soldiers didn't distinguish themselves.
The best recognition we can offer our warrior heroes, is to respect and SUPPORT the effort in which they have invested their lives..
If the Congress and the people can not stand with our warriors and give them the mission, moral support, ROEs and material support required to WIN THE WAR --- then we should pull them back home and let the enemy come to us...
At least when we're fighting on our own soil - which most leftists seem to prefer -- we will have the opportunity to kill off a lot of the leftist, cowardly sonsuvbitches and other "enemies within"....
Arm thy self neighbor --- it's coming soon.
Semper Fi