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Title: Army rules Fort Hood shooting victims eligible for Purple Heart
Source:
Dallas Morning News
URL Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/loca ... -eligible-for-purple-heart.ece
Published: Feb 9, 2015
Author: Aubree Abril
Post Date: 2015-02-09 14:51:44 by redleghunter
Keywords: None
Views: 40194
Comments: 101
WASHINGTON — The Army announced Friday that it will award the Purple Heart to victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, after years of resistance. Texas lawmakers welcomed news that the shooting spree, which left 13 people dead and more than 30 wounded, would no longer be classified as an act of “workplace violence,” given the shooter proclaimed himself a jihadi. “This has been a long, hard fight. The victims of this attack have struggled, suffered and been abandoned by this administration. No more,” said Rep. John Carter, the Round Rock Republican whose district includes Fort Hood, the nation’s largest military installation. “Today is a day of victory, and I am honored to have fought on their behalf.” The decision, Carter said, would “provide the victims their due benefits” and “finally give closure to the families.” Poster Comment: About time.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 101.
#3. To: redleghunter (#0)
Hasan, who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan a few weeks later, shouted “Allahu akbar!” meaning “God is great,” before targeting soldiers with a high-powered, high-capacity handgun he had fitted with laser sights. He was apprehended by military police officers after firing more than 200 shots. www.washingtonpost.com/wo...6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html Some firearms would be more useful, but a Purple Heart is better than nothing. Maybe next time the bullets will bounce off of their Purple Hearts?
They'll get more benefits this way which had been denied to them and their families because it was declared "workplace violence". So it makes a big difference to the survivors and families, I think.
I'm sure it does,but military members that are murdered by a traitor in their own unit shouldn't be getting a Purple Heart. Next thing you know they will be handing them out to clerks and cooks that get hurt in a car accident while driving to work at the base/
Wow not a biased source at all. Only 2LTs whine on "deserving" awards and worry about who gets what.
"Can some ribbon racks be over the top, or is more always better?" https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/can-some- ribbon- racks-be-over-the-top-or-is-more-always-better.
Lets see Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Commendation Medal, NO Purple Hearts and a whole lot of I was flying AROUND ribbons and personal achievement ribbons.
The display of awards and decorations has come a long way for this:
That was when Medals were given out for Valor not for just being IN or flying OVER the theatre, who knows how many miles behind the lines. Even when I was in and I retired 16 years ago if aircrew flew into a hazardous theatre (even if it was mega miles behind the lines) you got a Commendation Medal. (You made 10 trips you got 10 Commendation Medals). But.... if you were a passenger on one of those same flights you got......... (Wait for it, wait for it)...... NOTHING!!!!!!!!!! Woohooooo Hell I got shot at on 3 different TDYs by Muzzies and got nothing for it but the aircrew who dumped my ass off got medals for it, go figure. $5 says pete can relate to that. {chuckle} I looked at the new AF ribbons chart and there is so many new medals it isn't funny, and most of them are what you get for just showing up to work. One of them now is just for VOLUNTEERING!!!!!!!!! REALLY???????? (AND that CMSgt even has one of those). LOL. (I wonder if I could have gotten one of those for "being volunteered" to clean the schitter if I had stayed in longer)? :)
We probably have something in common with awards. I worked on a joint mission with the Corps TACP while in Iraq. I was surprised when called to the BIAP "Air Force House." The Corps ALO/EASOG commander pinned an AFAM on me.
For doing what if you don't mind me asking?
It was an impact award. I was the MNC-I lead on coordinating Joint assets lethal/non-lethal for a 'pinned down' SF advisory team and the downed Apache aircraft which went to support them. The rest is need to know:) But there was some press of the event: BACKGROUND: Millenarians in Najaf hoped to kill Sistani et al. to prepare return of the Mahdi It was late January 2007. The Corps ALO (EASOG commander) appreciated my efforts for recommending retasking of CFACC assets to support what we called "The Mother of all TICs" (troops in contact). His JOC ALO team was a little green around the gills to stomp on who needed to be stomped on:). I also drafted a position paper later that Spring arguing the need for USN CSG air support for the surge. The requirement needed to come from the Army and needed GEN Petreaus' signature. After the memo was signed I traveled with the ALO and my COL boss to the CAOC to deliver the memo to the CFACC commander. At least the above was alluded to in the citation write up. As you know the AFAM is a service/achievement award. No heroism/valor involved. Just doing my job and he recognized me for it. After almost 12 years of my service joined at the hip with ALOs and JTACs, it was nice to have something to remember my brothers in Blue.
I have a vague recollection of something that happened during the Grenada incursion/excursion when Reagan was president. Some of the US troops developed heat injuries during the action. They were eventually awarded purple hearts, if my memory is correct. Look it up.
Some of the US troops developed heat injuries during the action. They were eventually awarded purple hearts, if my memory is correct. Look it up. If any run for office as Dems, their Republican opponent will claim that those injuries were not deserving of purple hearts.
Not to worry. Most who get into politics on either side of the aisle don't serve in the military.
Or if they did they were REMFs pretending to be more than what they actually were.
Like Gore?
Like Gore? So what would you Navy guys call someone like Gore? An "Admirals Mate" or "Someone with too much draft".
The Navy does not have a real rear echelon as it does not engage in a lot of land-based fighting. The main battery of the carriers is their aircraft. Smaller ships now have missiles. There is not a lot of ship to ship combat anymore. SEALs are like a separate Navy altogether. The same may be said for sub sailors and SeaBees. In the regular Navy on ships, there is no equivalent rear echelon to that of the Army. One might say the Navy is the rear echelon of the Marines. I suppose the rear echelon of the surface fleet is the aircraft carrier with a flag admiral aboard. It stays within a convoy of ships protecting it on the surface and subs protecting it below. Its aircraft protect the skies above. The destroyers (tin cans) are sort of the front line. Probably those regular Navy (excluding SEALs and such) who see the most land combat would strangely be the non-combatant Hospital Corpsman. They accompany the Marines who have no medical corps of their own. For land fighting, the Navy has a subsidiary called the Marines for that. They may view the Navy as their unmilitary taxi service. The Marines did not like to be told they were part of the Navy, but there is no Secretary of the Marines. Other than their official attachment, the Navy and Marines are just different worlds. The Marines called us squids and we called them grunts, jarheads or seafaring bellhops (referring the the dress pants with the red stripes). The Coasties and some Navy ship-based sailors were shallow water sailors, as opposed to blue water sailors. A submarine tender would be homeported overseas and sit there most of the time. If in the Med, it might not leave the Med for years. It stays tied up to the pier as it requires a stable environment to work on things like nuclear torpedoes, not that anyone acknowledges nuclear anything, anywhere in the neighborhood. There is a Navy distinction between ship-based and land-based sailors, or sand crabs (me). There are many Navy overseas shore locations which count as sea time for sea/shore rotation purposes. Some, with more support facilities, count as shore time. I knew one guy who did a 20 year career at one overseas base. He just went back and forth from the shore base to a sub tender tied up to the pier to alternate sea and shore duty. On ships, a sharp distinction is between the ships crew and a flag officer's staff, and air squadrons on carriers. The staff and squadrons are not part of the ship's crew. Also, derogatory terms are had for admin types such as Yeomen or Personnelmen who may be referred to as titless WAVES. And sub sailors call surface ships skimmers. For real military politics, try a NATO HQ. An O-5 might be a glorified butler for an admiral. I really didn't know much about Gore's service I had to check online to see what you were asking about. It seems he was a Harvard grad who chose to enlist and go the Nam as an enlisted man. It may have been to punch his ticket and help his father's political chances, but he could have entered as an officer if he chose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore --- Of his time in the Army, Gore later stated, "I didn't do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was proud to wear my country's uniform." He also later stated that his experience in Vietnam "didn't change my conclusions about the war being a terrible mistake, but it struck me that opponents to the war, including myself, really did not take into account the fact that there were an awful lot of South Vietnamese who desperately wanted to hang on to what they called freedom. However, he appears to have puffed up his five months in Vietnam as something more than journalist duty. I see his only military award being the National Defense Service Medal. That was given to people coming out of boot camp. We referred to the ribbon as the Geedunk Ribbon, indicating being first in line at the geedunk three days in a row. In my 20 years, I never got sent west of Chicago, but I have never claimed to have been in combat or been subjected to enemy fire. I guess I'd just call Gore a rich kid politician. In the Navy, he might have been a titless WAVE. There's no real REMF equivalent. His puffery seems relatively minor compared to some. The article below is critical of Gore's service claims. http://www.rightgrrl.com/carolyn/goreserve.html Did Al Gore Serve in Vietnam?
There are no replies to Comment # 101. End Trace Mode for Comment # 101.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestHasan, an Army psychiatrist, was found guilty this month on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder after opening fire Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where troops were getting medical checkups before deploying to Afghanistan.
#5. To: hondo68 (#3)
Some firearms would be more useful, but a Purple Heart is better than nothing.
#8. To: TooConservative (#5)
So it makes a big difference to the survivors and families, I think.
#18. To: sneakypete (#8)
(Edited)
#20. To: Gatlin (#18)
How did I achieve least-decorated status in spite of being a West Point graduate, airborne, Ranger who volunteered for Vietnam? Easy. I did not suck up to my superiors.
#21. To: redleghunter, sneakypete (#20)
(Edited)
#27. To: Gatlin, redleghunter (#21)
#28. To: CZ82 (#27)
Through this:
To this:
#52. To: Gatlin, redleghunter, sneakypete (#28)
#56. To: CZ82 (#52)
#71. To: redleghunter (#56)
The Corps ALO/EASOG commander pinned an AFAM on me.
#72. To: CZ82, GarySpFc (#71)
For doing what if you don't mind me asking?
#74. To: redleghunter, CZ82, sneakypete (#72)
#75. To: Fred Mertz, redleghunter, CZ82, sneakypete (#74)
I have a vague recollection of something that happened during the Grenada incursion/excursion when Reagan was president.
#76. To: Pericles (#75)
If any run for office as Dems, their Republican opponent will claim that those injuries were not deserving of purple hearts.
#85. To: redleghunter, sneakypete (#76)
Not to worry. Most who get into politics on either side of the aisle don't serve in the military.
#89. To: CZ82 (#85)
Or if they did they were REMFs
#99. To: nolu chan, redleghunter (#89)
(Edited)
Or if they did they were REMFs
#101. To: CZ82, redleghunter (#99)
So what would you Navy guys call someone like Gore?
Gore has said that his other reason for enlisting was that he did not want someone with fewer options than he to go in his place. Actor Tommy Lee Jones, a former college housemate, recalled Gore saying that "if he found a fancy way of not going, someone else would have to go in his place." His Harvard advisor, Richard Neustadt, also stated that Gore decided, "that he would have to go as an enlisted man because, he said, 'In Tennessee, that's what most people have to do.'"
By Carolyn Gargaro
Rightgrrl Co-Founder
August 10, 1999
Updated October 9, 2000
Replies to Comment # 101.
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