Soldiers Give Purple Hearts To Civilians

[BL 73]

Questions: Is it appropriate for a soldier to symbolically give his/her Purple Heart to a civilian? And, what are your thoughts about the reactions to the following two cases?

Background: Below are extracts of two articles about soldiers giving their Purple Hearts (PH) to civilians. One PH was given to a female student of color (culture unknown /seventh-grader Fatima Faisal) and the other to a white female (Kimberly Dozier / CBS reporter injured by a car bomb in Iraq).

In regards to Fatima, there were a lot of the negative reactions on Internet Blogs / Chat Rooms - most racist, i.e., questioning why the soldier gave the PH to a Muslim (even though Fatima's faith wasn't revealed), assuming she is Muslim because she is a person of color or by name association, etc. - an interesting parallel to the African American experience. In regards to Kimberly, Internet reactions (to date) have been extremely positive, supportive and complementary.

Your thoughts.....................................?

Soldier Gives His Purple Heart to Teen

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (May 27) - A soldier said he gave his Purple Heart to a 13-year-old student [Fatima Faisal] who won a contest for writing letters to American troops out of gratitude.

"It's important what these children do for us in sending these letters," Staff Sgt. Phillip Trackey said after giving away the medal he received for injuries in Iraq. "The letters mean so much to us. So I thought this was a big way of giving something back to them." ……………………………..

Trackey, of Glens Falls, said he received the medal for shoulder and head wounds he suffered when a bomb went off near him in Baghdad in January 2005. Trackey said his Purple Heart was just collecting dust at home.

Dozier Gets Purple Heart From Soldier

BERLIN (June 2) - Kimberly Dozier, the CBS reporter wounded by a car bomb in Iraq, now has a Purple Heart at her bedside in a U.S. military hospital in Germany after a young American soldier gave her his medal, the network said………………………..

[CPT]

It's the soldier's perogative to symbolically give his/her medal up. The CBS reporter, I assume was with the troopers through thick and thin, and obviously earned some respect...she was along side the soldiers risking her life as well to get hopefully an accurate story. So, the Soldier wanted to award her for her efforts....as for the 13 year old...that might be a little stretch...but letters from home are what keeps us troopers going. I don't think the soldiers felt ungrateful for the medals...like in Vietnam where some soldiers didn't believe in their mission etc. If you look at these soldiers who earn medals...they don't consider themselves heroes...they are humble. Plus the award system is over blown...you have soldiers who are in the rear in the combat zone who never had an actual fight and get a bronze star....you have the soldiers who get shot and get silver stars or less....why not the Medal of Honor.....and people who got killed saving their buddies who should get Medals of Honor but get Bronze Star w/ V device or Silver stars. And I've seen people in the same unit who fought in the same battles, but the officers get Bronze Stars and the lower enlisted and some SNR enlisted get MSM's....what the ####!!!. I've had CDRs who gave everyone ARCOMs cause they weren't in a war zone, they can't help where they are...they say medals are based on performance...but CDR's give out awards based on rank. It costs $1.35 to give a medal to someone......soldiers don't care about medals...they will do their duty regardless....but it would be nice to be appreciated for the job you do.....no wonder so many CPTs are leaving the Army in droves. But you bet that COL will get his MSM for sitiing on his rear.