A Bronze Star?

I don't know about this one.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030722/ap_on_re_us/lynch_homecoming_18

 

Got to agree with you Darrin. Smells a little too much like political appeasement.

 

Holy shit.

 

where's my bronze star? i've been attacked and battled off more people here than she in the field?!? i've even been wounded. {one time dave K hurt my feelings}

 

http://www.americal.org/awards/achv-svc.htm

The Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Army of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military operations against an armed enemy; or while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.

She got lost, ambushed, captured, beaten badly, then rescued.

Did every Vietnam POW get one? I'm not too up on how many of these things they give out, but I was under the impression the Bronze Star was a pretty small club and you had to do something pretty outstanding to get one (?).

- Roach

 

some accounts say she wasn't beaten.

 

My uncle got one in Vietnam.

He was shot in the head while trying to rescue a wounded soldier. That's "heroic action." Making a wrong turn and getting captured isn't.

Giving her one, for nothing, devalues the one he died earning.

 

Well said mtk!

What a crock of shit, I wonder what the other POWs's got

 

My grandfather has 3 of them (bronze star with 2 oak leaf clusters).

Yes, the standards have gone down quite a bit. It is relative, and the battles of today for the US military are so one sided it is hard to find heroes. She is also a woman and it compounds the issue and heightens the political mechanism.

My grandfather was an Army paymaster for military intelligence. Stationed in Germany during the cold was he was the guy that made sure the spies got paid. Transporting $1,000,000 in cash his buddy got shot through the head and the bullet grazed his skull and to this day he has this really noticeable scar on his forehead. He dragged his now dead buddy out of the line of fire, commandeered another vehicle and still managed to hang onto the million dollars.

That was a bronze star.

Anyway, I like shareing that story. It wasn't until recently he told us it. And for the longest time he maintained his scar was from a glider accident (he also flew those gliders they towed in WW2). Then it all became obvious if I could have just conencted the dots, but I was a little kid.

Cold War
Germany
Miliatry Intel.
Paymaster

DUH!!!!!!!

 

http://www.pstripes.com/medals1.htm

this is even WORSE

 

With the Air Force's philosophy everyone on my submarine should have at least been award the damn Kuwaiti service medals during the Gulf War. Shit, at least we were in some danger but our location is classified so we don't get a damn thing.

 

You guys are a piece of work...

Are supply clerks not as important as the guys with the guys? One famous general mentioned that an army marches on it's stomach. The Germans who invaded Russia might have liked to have a few more.

Did she make the wrong turn or did her commander? She (and her unit) paid for someone else's fuck-up.

The Purple Heart is something to be proud of as well.

Yes there are others who deserved the Bronze Star more (some great stories in this thread, btw) and some that did deserve it never received it.

Who gives a shit if she got beat or not? She got seriously f@cked up serving her country. Instead of thanks, ya whine she doesn't deserve her medal? So she wasn't a johny-badass like the Rangers or something, that isn't what she was trained to do. She was in a situation that was beyond her training.

Sure, it's mainly a PR thing. So friggin' what? I really doubt it lessens the worth of the other Star recepients. It doesn't in my mind.

Let her have her moment, no one really gives a shit what we think anyhow. It'll be over soon anyhow.

 

In danger from what? Speedboats? All kidding aside, those are some serious-bad-ass boats you guys got! It certainly takes someone special (or touched!) to be a submariner... The Navy tried to recruit me to do that out of college in their Nuke program, but I don't think I could hack being underwater for that long! I toured a WWII sub in San Fran. There is NO WAY I could survive that! Kudos to you and your boys!

 

What he said...

 

No one said she was any less important that the other people who won't be receiving a Bronze Star, free ride through college, and ridiculous media attention.

I believe there was more than one POW in this war, yes? In fact, there was even another woman POW ... but she wasn't white, petit, and attractive. Why isn't she getting the same treatment? Because she didn't have any broken bones? Someone should have handed her a hammer and told her it was worth $20k+ of education and the Bronze Star

She is a soldier, she was doing soldier stuff. Sometimes that sucks. What she went through undoubtably sucked. It doesn't, however, mean that she should get something that is usually awarded to people rising to a much higher standard.

- Roach

 

My take on her situation is about choice. She didn't choose to get lost, get captured, get beaten or even rescued. They were circumstances she SURVIVED.

Purple Heart I can see.

Bronze star should be for people who had a choice and put the mission or others lives before theirs.

Now, had she escaped that would be a different story.

I think she endured a hell of a lot. More than most people would care to that's for sure.

 

Some of you guys either have never been in the military or you were asleep while there. The bronze star is awarded for meritorious service, not just valor, and it's nowhere near as rare as you're making it out to be. If it was for valor, it would have a "V" decoration. Hers does not.

The true medal for valor is the silver star, that's the only case that it's awarded. And the Medal of Honor, of course.

 

I think she deserves all the medals she wants for what she is putting up with now.

they told us there was some place in St. louis we could write and find out how many medals we get. The Army gives them away.

 

In response to Frank Angel, I went and read the page describing what all the medals were awarded for. My view of the merits for the Bronze star were a bit off.

BUT

What was different about her situation from all the rest?

 

Not very much. There will be thousands of bronze stars awarded from the action in Afghanastan and Iraq. I may be wrong, but I think that anyone who got a CIB in WWII (basically anyone in the infantry that was shot at during hostile action) can trade it in on a bronze star for meritorious service.