i think many more are handed out nowadays but i also think the media plays a larger part of making us aware. before, itd simply go unnoticed much like it should be. shouldnt be a publicity thing imo.
From Wiki: They may hand them out like candy, but they were earned. My Dad was a medic in Normandy. He earned his by providing aid to the wounded. Is that candy?
I absolutely agree, they all earned it. But they did change some things in the 80's. A former colleague of mine received a Purple Heart in Germany in 1945. Around 1982 they sent him a Bronze Star because they had decided that any WWII Purple Heart winner was eligible. He understood that it was for awarded for meritorious service and proud of it, but was privately amused by it. He told me that he was 18, right out of high school and infantry training when he was sent over in the last days of the war as a replacement. In his first combat action he was ordered to run along a wall and take up a a position at the end of it. They opened up on him with a machine gun and shot him in the leg before he reached it. I told him that having the balls to do that was meritorious enough for anyone. He grinned and said, "Yeah, but I was evacuated to the hospital on my first day in action never having fired a shot at anybody and I had chit my pants before they hit me." Good enough for me, brother. You did your duty.
I've never heard him use that term, but I have heard him say that the key to successful humor is believability. I was applying that philosophy.
Today the National Security Adviser gave details of the operation from the White House's viewpoint. From the Washington Times:
