gets 13 awards for 400 days of battling with Nazis, killing Nazis and seeing his friends killed day in and day out. These three Cavalry troops who didn't return fire,were the victims of rough treatment, and who surrendered receive half as many awards as Audie Murphy? Audie actually punched holes in enemy troops. Against a superior force, Audie used a .50 cal while atop a burning tank destroyer for damn near an hour -- he single-handedly could account for 50 enemy KIA's. He was awarded the Medal of Honor and lost half his ass in the process. It seems to me that these three troops are, like Capt. O'Grady and W.O. Durant, being used, and are victims in all this. From where I sit the whole fiasco sounds like "meritorious underachievement" while being used as part of some "Clark Clinton Super Spin" campaign by the Army, NATO and the Administration in particular. Soldiers who deserve a Purple Heart are troops such as Navy Lt. Jack Daly. Jack was lasered by a lasing device from a Russian ship, the Kapitan Mann, in 1997. His eyesight is deteriorating and he is in constant pain. He may eventually go blind. The U.S. Navy has not awarded him a Purple Heart, however. Why? Because you cannot see his wounds? Or is it that acknowledging his wounds may create another National Security crisis, further hurt our relations with the Russians and wouldn't make good Clinton "spin"? Don't focus your anger and derision at the three troops involved in this mess. The Army failed in its primary mission to these troops -- prepare them for combat. The current "Be All You Can Be" and "Consideration Of Others" training crowd of PR types is to blame. Troops in a combat area should be trained for combat and resistance. Weapons carried should be loaded, enough ammo made available and the will to use them instilled. These poor fellows were trained for failure, I'm afraid. Now, it seems, that "failure" must be hidden behind the smokescreen of creating heroes ...
