Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry Message Board

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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry

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To: H-Man who wrote (14922)	4/15/2004 11:48:26 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (2) of 81568

H-Man, it sounds like your dad is one tough hombre. I'm sure you must be very proud of his fighting spirit. His rejection of purple hearts is not typical of Vietnam service, however. When I was there the men in my unit automatically got a purple heart for minor wounds recieved in combat. The medic would treat the wounds and then a purple heart would be generated. I guess you'd have to put me in the same category as Kerry. I got two purple hearts. One was for powder burns and a bullet graze on my arm when an NVA soldier opened up on me with a 30 cal machine gun from a distance of about 4 meters. Just before he opened up I sensed his presence and threw myself backwards leaving my arms out front. The bullets passed through where I was. I got some salve on the wounds and that was it. Do you think I should give back the purple heart? The first wound was from an rpg that threw me into the air and left me with a few shrapnel scars on my chest and left arm. I was only out of the field for a few days and then came back out dripping fluids from the wounds. Is that too minor for you? I did specifically ask that a third purple heart not be awarded, but only because I knew how it worked and I didn't want to explain that purple heart later. I gave myself the wound when my hand slipped through a grenade in a firefight and it dropped right in the middle of the 4 of us that were at the head of the firefight. I picked it up, underhanded it forward and dove the other way. It exploded while I was still in the air and I caught a small piece of it in the butt. It was too stupid to explain and I made the medic promise not to report it. I'm just curious to know why you would think that a purple heart should not be given unless the wound is crippling, or requires significant treatment? I felt like I'd been wounded in action, wounded by the metal tossed our way by people trying to kill us and that I was entitled. Or maybe you think the people that said that John McCain "cracked" in the North Vietnamese prison camp torture sessions had properly demonstrated that he had a lack of courage or character. It's amazing how far people will go to smear men that did their job and earned our admiration in time of war. As for me, I'm proud of your dad. I'm proud of John McCain. I'm proud of John Kerry. I'm proud of the poor sonofabitches that served with me in the jungle and I'm proud of myself. I'm not nearly as proud of the ones that talked tough and never got out there. You know the kinds of people I mean. Men like Cheney, Wolfowitz, and of course, president George W. Bush.

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