I saw an interesting article in on MSN this morning. It was about a serviceman, Dan Jones, fighting in Vietnam in 1968. He was in a helicopter which was shot down by "friendly fire" - an American howitzer accidentally shot it down. Three Marines were killed. He was the only survivor. Because it was a friendly fire incident, his fellow Marines would not be awarded Purple Hearts. Further, he was instructed to not inquire about it again. In 1981, with help from Senator Barry Goldwater, he again asked the Marine Corps to issue the medals, but was told that victims of friendly fire were excluded from the honor. However, he persisted and now, 47 years later, the victims are being awarded the Purple Heart. To me, this seems to be the least that "a grateful nation" can do to let the families of such courageous man know that their sacrifices are, indeed, honored. Read the full article here - http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/vi...rror-and-purple-hearts-long-denied/ar-AA9Lc3A
I saw a blurb about this on Facebook, probably the day you posted this. I'm glad he finally got his medal, and I also recently saw that the people hurt in the Fort Hood terrorist attack, and the attack on the Little Rock Recruiting Station were also recently awarded Purple Hearts, as well as increased benefits. It's about time they are receiving what they should have received at the first opportunity. Here's a link to the story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...d2d0c2-e46f-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32_story.html