Lynch Receives Bronze Star Before Homecoming (What for?!!)

KFOXTV.com ^ | 07/22/03 | KFOXTV.com

[Destro]

Lynch Receives Bronze Star Before Homecoming

Pfc. Jessica Lynch is returning home Tuesday, newly decorated for heroism in Iraq.

A member of Ft. Bliss' 507th Maintenance Company, Lynch was captured during the attack on a portion of the unit in Nasiriyah, Iraq on March 23rd. She was rescued from captivity on April 1st.

On Monday, Pfc. Lynch received the Bronze Star for heroism, Purple Heart for being wounded in combat, and P.O.W. Medal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she has been treated for more than three months. KFOX will have a full report on Private Lynch's homecoming Tuesday night on KFOX News at Nine.

[Kevin Curry]

Many of the planners got Bronze Stars.

The McDill CENTCOM stiffs? More likely they received Defense Meritorious Service Medals--which is actually a notch higher than a Bronze Star (which is equivalent to a Meritorious Service Medal). That would make more sense.

[Deb]

You're getting ridiculous. And you're sounding like the moron who claimed the black female soldier didn't get the same treatment because she wasn't as cute.

What an insult to the soldiers who rushed the hospital in the middle of a battle the press was saying they were losing and to the American people, everyone of whom would have been just as thrilled to have Shoshona home today if her circumstances had been the same.

The truth is, the rescue team didn't know the captive was blonde and blue-eyed when they went to get her and it wouldn't have mattered a bit.

There was a British columnist who claimed we never would have done the same for a black soldier or a gay soldier. What garbage.

When you are taken by the enemy, in a state where your injuries prevent your escape and you manage to stay alive in a hugely painful POW situation, then you can complain about her "doing nothing" to deserve her medal.

This thread makes me sick to my stomach.

[discostu]

I'm related by blood to every branch except the Navy, I try to avoid inter-service rivalry but with both parents Marines I lean green. Nobody did anything that got a cool medal, my family seems to have a genetic pre-disposition to being support personel.

I don't understand how anybody with a clean conscious can look at someone that still can't walk and say they don't deserve recognition.

[meyer]

I'm related by blood to every branch except the Navy, I try to avoid inter-service rivalry but with both parents Marines I lean green. Nobody did anything that got a cool medal, my family seems to have a genetic pre-disposition to being support personel.

Not related, but I've got friends from all branches. They're all good people, for the most part. I don't understand how anybody with a clean conscious can look at someone that still can't walk and say they don't deserve recognition.

The only exception I might find is if someone shot themself in the foot. That is obviously not the case here!

[RGSpincich]

I realize the awards system is sometimes out of control, but I've never met someone, not in theater, that earned a Bronze Star that way.

This one is not at the Pentagon but he's closer to the Pentagon than the actual theatre.

This time last year, an Air Force lieutenant colonel was leading a team of mechanics and maintenance crews at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., making sure the B-2 bomber was a regular player in the air campaign against Yugoslavia some 5,000 miles away. For his efforts, he is among the nearly 200 Air Force members to receive the nation’s fourth-highest combat award, the Bronze Star.

Stars and Stripes

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I'm curious about when the "V" was introduced - would you happen to know that?

I think a lot of questioning and confusion we are witnessing has to do with the apparent change of standards, and perhaps the branch-to-branch distinction of the requirements for each award. If it was always like this, I would be surprised; my dad got a Purple Heart, and he was crawling around in the middle of one hell of a firefight.

He wasn't in the Army though...but there is a WWII vet in my family who was (in the Battle of the Bulge), and he doesn't have one either.

Is it your impression that the standards have changed in general since then, or is there something else I'm missing?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

EXCEPT for the Medal of Honor. Here, a close examination will reveal that the Navy has awarded the Medal of Honor for acts or bravery that would not qualify in other services. The Marine Corps is more liberal in its award of the Medal of Honor than is the Army, probably because its recommendations must be approved by the Department of the Navy. That said, anyone wearing a Medal of Honor has earned it.

This site I found, which was linked to a site maintained by the Army, seems to contradict what you say about the Medal of Honor. The Army clearly gives it out more liberally in terms of numbers - but perhaps there is a reason for that that isn't made clear just by looking at the statistics - do you know?

[Drew68]

This thread makes me sick to my stomach.

All of the several Jessica Lynch threads have been like this today. Whiny little pissants bitching about how undeserving she is on the very day that she came home. How classy.

I have been posting here for over two years and I can hardly recall more vitriol, anger and bitterness than I have over Jessica's Bronze Star.

This was the last place I would have expected to see this.

[CholeraJoe]

You have freepmail.

[Hue68]

The Medal of Honor is coming soon. She will be a poster child in politics pretty soon. I am not sure how Purple Heart, etc is judged, but there has to be a bigger criteria than getting wounded to get a coveted award.

What inside knowledge do you have? Let her have her day. If you want to be angry, target the brass. This young soldier did not ask for medals.

[#3Fan]

You're exactly right. Of all the examples of injustice in the world, why would some conservatives see this as an injustice to spend all day moaning about, denigrating a POW on her day of celebration, when as we can see from the examples everyone has shown, nothing out of the ordinary was done today in the awarding of that medal. Their real problem is that Lynch is female, not what she did or didn't do, since they haven't said a word about everyone else in that unit that received Bronze Stars. They better get used to the fact that many jobs in the military can now be done by women and will be done by women volunteers. If I had a Chinese nuclear bomber (if they have them?) heading toward my town getting ready for "bombs away", I'd rather have a Shoshana Jackson, a Lori Piestewa, or a Jessica Lynch pushing the button on a SAM missile than an Oliver Stone who was drafted and may have communist tendencies.

[CWOJackson]

I'm not sure when the "V" device was adopted, however, I do see where you're having a problem with this issue...so let me make it a little more difficult.

Some awards, such as the Purple Heart, do not have distinquishing attachments; the basic award in and of itself stands alone. There are no Purple Hearts with a "V" or an "O"... There is not difference whatsoever between the Purple Heart your father was awarded and PFC Lynch were awarded. Even those who receive the Purple Heart in relation to action for which they receive the Medal of Honor receive the exact same Purple Heart.

The only type of attachment (not device) that can be added to the award of a Purple Heart is an attachment denoting a subsequent award. In the case of the Purple Heart it is a small bronze star (not the Bronze Star medal). That is placed on the service ribbon, or on the ribbon attached to the medal to denote a second receipt of the Purple Heart.

So if your father was wounded in combat twice, he would have received the Purple Heart with Bronze Star (not a Bronze Star Medal). PFC Lynch received the Purple Heart and a Bronze Stat (not an attachment or device).

Simple right?

[CWOJackson]

In regards your question about frequency of award by the Army, that is most likely due to the comparative size of that service, and direct combat employed personnel, vrs the other branchs.

[Deb]

People here have gone insane. They need to eat more meat.

[Squantos]

She was issued the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service not bravery, heroism or valor. Such a Bronze Star Award is common during wartime when all in theater awards of the MSM become a Bronze Star pretty much automatically.

She has not been awarded the BS with a V for Valor .

Stay Safe and smart.....

[Destro]

A gay soldier??? I hope not!

[Destro]

I love to make people think!

[cherry]

"have been posting here for over two years and I can hardly recall more vitriol, anger and bitterness than I have over Jessica's Bronze Star.

visit the Kobe support threads if you want to see real vitrial and anger and bitterness....

it does surprise me about people here on Free Republic...

I would never believe in a million years that people would not only cannonize a slick Hollywood millionaire democrat while crucifying his small town accuser before any trial, but would take to questioning the actions of a basically paralyzed US Army vet....

[Squantos]

Folks need to leave this troop alone and give her peace and time to heal. She'll tell her story soon enough for the Oxygen channel and the presstitutes of the noooooze industry that want to exploit her painful incident for fun and profit.......If it puts some money in her pockets that she can share with the children of her fellow troops that did not survive and make sure they get through college I'd be real proud of her.

I'm proud of her now , very proud of every troop tyat has every gone into harms way, intentionally or accidently to ensure that this nation stays safe. Till then I'm glad she's back safely in the arms of her family.

You Stay Safe !

[Pan_Yans Wife]

And it's not a coveted award, in general it's considered to be a congradulations for not getting killed.

I thought even those killed in action received Purple Hearts.