On Fri, 16 May 2008 09:55:08 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On May 14, 4:27*am, Dave LaCourse wrote:
On Tue, 13 May 2008 20:20:48 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Yeah you are right, he ONLY won a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. And
you, Ann Coulter and a whole gaggle of creeps like to pretend that his
wounds at Khe Sanh were not battlefield wounds so his lost limbs did
not qualify for the purple heart. Frankly a whole passel of decent
republicans distance themselves from these slanders. The **** heels
like to say stuff like his wounds were self inflicted because he
picked up the grenade and that it wasn't Khe Sanh. I wonder how kids
popped dismantling IEDs would be classified by you and Coulter?

Dave, I just said that the man suffered terrible wounds in Nam and
maybe he should have been awarded the PH. *But he *wasn't*, and for
him to say so and stand behind his words and blogs is what everyone
objected to. *Show me where I have agreed with anything Coulter has
said about Cleland? *It doesn't exist. *My one and only objection to
the man is his phony representation of the PH. *

OTT, how are you doing with your surgery? *Just had another friend,
68, go through the ordeal, but is now ok. *He had the same docs as I
used.

Dave

Any complete look at this issue understands that it is a red herring.
First, missing awards and being confused about awards is pretty common
for severely wounded, focused on regaining a sense of the world
outside the horror visited upon them. Cleland even said early in his
recovery and later that the real heroes were other guys and he didn't
deserve the medals. THAT is a very common response from combat
survivors who often remain focused on their dead and missing
comrades. My Uncle, a Silver Star winner, wouldn't talk about the war
until a couple of years ago. He would only make jokes when asked. He'd
say things like HE was safe because he slept under Patton's tank. Ive
read the citation and some of the combat reports of his Armored
Engineer unit and have some idea of the casualties the Germans
extracted from Patton's spearheads, and I know he was not safe. And as
a little kid I saw some of the human wreckage that were his surviving
buddies and I doubt they cared very much about an accurate inventory
of their awards.

Assuming Dave to be correct about the false PH claim, I'd offer two
things: If Cleland had said he didn't have a PH when he did have one,
the "I forgot" might carry more weight, and two, if he claimed it more
or less contemporaneously with the injury, it would be understandable
that he might assume he had received it. But for a public figure such
as Cleland to fall back on "oops, I forgot I didn't actually have one"
seems to strain credibility - YMMV.

What I don't understand is why people think he (and McCain, for having
been a POW) are "heroes" based solely upon things completely beyond
their control or necessarily correct in their opinions about war or that
to question them is somehow unpatriotic. Another thing I don't
understand is why anyone would question that Cleland is, by "normal"
definition, a "hero" based on his Silver and Bronze stars, which are,
AFAIK, legit and deserved.

HTH,
R