It has been my experience that the award of the Purple Heart is as a rule honorable. I know that my marine outfit used to joke around that the best way to take a break from the front-line was to shoot yourself in the foot or cut your finger opening a C-ration and to boot maybe get a Purple Heart for the folks at home to brag about. Yet no one in our platoon ever seriously considered it, much less did it — Pride of the Marines, you know.

To suggest that Kerry was awarded three Purple Hearts for “self-afflicted” wounds, is, of course, pure navy scuttlebutt [bullshit rumors round the drinking fountain of a ship]. Only civilians, who have no understanding of the deadly power of U.S. weapons, would be gullible to find it believable of a person running for office whom they despise. However, for fellow veterans who would suggest such a thing and thereby reduce war to joke should be under suspicion themselves for ever really engaging the enemy.

In combat, it is possible to be victimized by uncontrollable fear — we called that Island Happy — by making a mistake, such as pausing too long in squeezing the trigger or the pull of a grenade and wind up with a bayonet in your gut, or simply too lazy to dig a foxhole or stupidly to remove a helmet while under a Nambu or mortar attack, resulting in a Purple Heart. Training, along with self-preservation — usually obviates such cases, or at least, held to a minimum. So called light wounds that temporarily disable a fighter, requiring treatment, is sent to triage, patched up and rested for a time before returned to the front, whereupon he would look gung-ho courting a bloody bandage, his red badge of courage. Though he might have assumed eligibility for a Purple Heart, it is never the victim’s prerogative to demand nor even request it, as it all depends on medical records and the intensity at the moment of treating the seriously wounded in triage.

Granted Vietnam was different from WW II, as it conducted many short-lived guerilla raids and then returned to a rather comfortable administrative base, lending time for relatively elaborate reports, particularly when it came to the enemy body-count juxtaposed to ours. Obviously, then, what with the growing distaste for the war, abundant awards were necessary, and conceivably the books cooked. Still, that does not diminish the courage of those who served there and under miserable conditions.

That said, I do have an issue with the Purple Heart: it does not distinguish the degree of the wound, and worse, those who made the supreme sacrifice the same medal is bestowed to the surviving spouse or family. For a very longtime now it has been my view that a White or Black Heart be given for those who gave their lives in combat. The Purple Heart for those who are disabled for life and a Red Heart for those wounded less seriously. Moreover, there should be but one for multiple incidents and a commensurate number of stars on the red ribbon only.

To return to my point: The Swift Boat Commanders should be ashamed of themselves for carrying on like nagging, picky children and dragging up ghosts of the past to cheapen the image of a fellow sailor who served honorably by being decorated for bravery as did those who now wish to cheapen Kerry’s while still cherishing their own.