Is it just me or does giving Lynch the Bronze Star seem ridiculous? My dad fought in Holland during WWII and everyone in his unit was killed except him. He lost tight friends in some awful ways. He and a soldier from another outfit pulled steel doors over a bomb crater and lived under it for three days while the nazis rained mortars outside and a machine gun rattled it. A sniper was trying to kill them by shooting under the doors from a distance. Shrapnel bounced and pinged off the metal roof. They little sleep, had a short supply of water and lived with the smell of their own urine and feces in a cramped hole. When the battle finally went quiet they had to find the nerve to crawl out, wondering if they were going to get their heads blown off as soon as they exposed themselves. All their troops were gone. They were captured by the Germans and Dad was taken (with some rough treatment along the way) to a live in a POW camp for seven months in the fall and winter. He lost fifty pounds. People died at the camp (mostly from dysentery problems). Not Dad. He'd wash his utensils in heated water and use sand to grind the grease off. He had shrapnel in his leg (which he lived with the rest of his life and you could see under the skin). To clean out his own body he chewed charcoal for "fiber" in lieu of the real thing (he once ate dog meat, "and I was glad to have it, maggots and all.") He got such a bad cold in the camp that for the rest of his life he suffered from sinus problems every winter.

My point is that he and thousands of other American soldiers that have been through much worse than Lynch came back and got a Purple Heart and that was it. Lynch was NOT shot or stabbed (as was initially reported). She doesn't even remember what happened. She was taken to a hospital by the Iraqis and was taken care of (much better than Iraqi victims of the war there). The doctors tried to turn her over to the U.S. but were shot at when driving her to make the drop. She had nothing to do with her rescue but to lay on a stretcher and be carried out. And for this she's getting a Bronze Star? I wonder if that BLACK WOMAN from her outfit who was captured, wounded and seen on TV (looking like hell and scared) is getting a Bronze Star? Seems she ought to get the Medal of Honor if they are handing Bronze Stars out for not firing a shot in combat and laying in a vehicle while suffering from a crash. But of course, she's not white and pretty and a part of a PR "hero scam" (as reported by the BBC) created for TV during a war that was looking bad to the public at the time. Regardless of what you think of that "rescue" (I'm not doubting the troops could have been fired upon during it but apparently never were, at least not in the video they show), this honor for somebody who didn't do anything in combat to help others but was HELPED by others seems an insult to soldiers that have SAVED lives in battle or whose bravery under fire inspired others to do the same. This is, in reality, a sideshow of the war for the people back home so they can "feel good".

That's my two cents.


Lynch Gets Medals Ahead of Homecoming
Tue Jul 22,12:43 AM ET

By GAVIN McCORMICK, Associated Press Writer

ELIZABETH, W.Va. - Former POW Jessica Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Washington Monday as she prepares for her homecoming.

Lynch, who returns to the hills of West Virigina Tuesday, also received Prisoner of War medals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The Bronze Star is given for meritorious combat service, a Purple Heart is most often awarded to those wounded in combat, and the POW for being held captive during wartime...




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