... purple hearts ... he has his framed in in Senate office.....
I keep hearing Kerryites citing his Purple Heart as if it's a medal for valor or at least merit.
Since when?
IIRC after more than fifty years, you got a Purple Heart for getting a bullet, a piece of shrapnel, or other foreign object allegedly maliciously inserted into some part of your body against your will -- no matter whether you were charging an enemy machine gun, flopping onto a live grenade to save your buddies, asleep in your bunk, or running the other way in what Patrick McManus called "a full-bore linear panic." Valor?
Where?IIRC, valor (when officially recognized, "by the book") earned other medals.
And during the Viet Nam war, according to several regular Army guys (still in uniform) whom I worked with at the proving ground, it wasn't unusual to get fancy-sounding medals for working on a military newspaper or radio station, for example, far from even friendly rounds fired in practice. Valor?
Where?The Purple Heart is an honorable medal, not to be disparaged or ridiculed. But let's not imply or infer that it's in the same league with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, or even the Combat Infantryman's Badge. It means only that you got your unlucky ol' butt wounded and says nothing about your behavior or bravery at the time.
