- Recently in Iraq, an Army two-star general put himself
in for the Silver Star, a gallantry award, for just being there, and for
the Combat Infantryman Badge, an award designed for infantry grunts far
below the rank of this division commander.
-
- During the war, members of an Air Force bomber crew were
all awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for lobbing a smart bomb from
30,000 feet onto a house where Saddam was rumored to be breaking bread
ñ even though Saddam's still out there somewhere sucking desert
air. In 1944, the only way a bomber crew might have gotten the DFC would
have been if it had wobbled back from Berlin on one wing and a prayer after
a dozen-plus missions of wall-to-wall flak.
-
- Here's another "Believe It or Not": When the
Scuds were thumping down on Kuwait, a Navy two-star admiral and six of
his flunkies were awarded the Bronze Star after a missile struck 10 miles
away.
-
- Not that these abuses of the awards system are anything
new. The U.S. military's awards program ñ designed to recognize
both our combat heroes' valor and the meritorious deeds by those hard-working
supporters who bring up the rear ñ has never been exactly fair.
-
- In the past, Joe and Jill have often gone unrecognized
because there was no one left at the end of the battle to bear witness,
or the paperwork got lost or wasn't written persuasively enough, or some
eager-beaver officer in the chain of command stole their glory.
-
- I know of two Medals of Honor ñ one in Korea and
the other with a Navy unit in Vietnam ñ that shamefully went to
still-living former officers when in fact their above-and-beyond deeds
"witnessed" by sycophants were actually performed by grunts.
-
- In the latter days of the Korean War and in Vietnam,
Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm and Somalia, such abuses of military honors
increased with each battle. In Vietnam, a dog was awarded the Bronze Star,
and in Grenada, more medals were awarded than there were soldiers on that
tiny island. In Desert Storm, Army infantry battalions that never saw a
shot fired were awarded the coveted CIB.
-
- Now warriors in Iraq are reporting that COs there are
using a quota system for awards. Sgt. Bill Casey, whose unit saw heavy
combat in Iraq, says: "Our awards were not given out on heroism. They
were based entirely upon rank and duty position. If you were a company
commander, you got a Silver Star. If you were a platoon leader or platoon
sergeant, you got a Bronze Star. If you did a good job at a level below
that, you might get a Bronze Star. If you were a PFC (private first class),
you probably didn't get a medal for valor. Every award was entirely based
upon rank and duty position ñ rather than whether that person stood
tall and continued to return fire or whether that person continued to bring
the fight to the enemy or flat-out ran away when the bullets started flying."
-
- These stats tell the story:
-
- The U.S. Air Force has approved more than 50,000 medals
for operations in the Middle East.
-
- The U.S. Army, trying to catch up with the folks in blue
who flew through all that imaginary Iraqi flak, has issued medals as though
they were Cracker Jack prizes. So far they've pinned on tens of thousands
of awards, from the coveted Distinguished Service Cross to the CIB. More
than 5,000 Bronze Stars alone have been awarded. One-half the members of
a 700-strong aviation squadron at Fort Stewart were recently presented
Bronze Stars and Commendation medals.
-
- But as of Sept. 22, 2003, the U.S. Marine Corps has approved
only 56 Meritorious Bronze Stars ñ 46 to officers, 10 to enlisted
ñ and 15 Bronze Stars for valor ñ 11 to officers and four
to enlisted ñ for their 70,000 fighters who kicked more than a little
butt during the war in Iraq.
-
- Kudos to our gallant Marine Corps for not following the
quota system and to its top brass for refusing to play the Pentagon's public-relations
medal-giveaway game.
-
- But any way you count 'em, deserving grunts aren't being
appropriately recognized by a sick, out-of-control system that desperately
needs overhauling.
-
-
- Col. David H. Hackworth, author of his new best-selling
"Steel My Soldiers' Hearts," "Price of Honor" and "About
Face," has seen duty or reported as a sailor, soldier and military
correspondent in nearly a dozen wars and conflicts ñ from the end
of World War II to the recent fights against international terrorism.
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- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34851
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