SwiftVets.com

[jalexson]

Marine Cpl. Travis Eichelberger has been told he must return a Purple Heart he was awarded after being run over by a tank two years ago at the beginning of the war. The Marines have now decided that he and others awarded Purple Hearts for traffic type accidents didn't really deserve the medals. Eichelberger and the other Marines didn't ask for Purple Hearts. Someone else decided that they deserved them at the time.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/10850936.htm


John Kerry veceived Purple Hearts for his own carelessness in handling weapons in Vietnam. He then applied for Purple Hearts for his "combat" injuries. Yet he gets to keep them and brag about his "heroism".

If Kerry isn't going to return his Purple Hearts, he should at least make an effort to tell the Marines to let those who received medals they didn't ask to return them simply because someone else made an error. If the regulations are so complicated that it took the Marines two years to realize a mistake had been made, those who honestly believed they deserved the medals should be allowed to keep them. They shouldn't have to return the medals because they don't qualify for the special privileges granted to Senators or presidential candidates.
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"That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoe making and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poor house."
-- Mark Twain

[mtboone]

The Marine Corp was correct in recinding the PH. These men were not involved in combat with the enemey when they received their wounds and Kerry should be stripped of at least two of his from his record. The Marines do not have to return them, they are just taken off their records as should be the case. The MSM is just blowing up the case and do not know their facts about the medal and how it should be rewarded.
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Terry Boone PCF 90
Qui Nhon 68-69