Have you ever read the award document given to you with any award? Even a simple Army commendation or Acheivement medal is written to sound so great. How else would anyone write something like that.

The Scary Kerry camps only argument against the Swift Boat Vets is that the award says this and that is what happend.........BLAH BLAH BLAH......There sure is a hell of a lot of difference in the stories. If all of these boats were under HEAVY fire than surely there would be more people to tell of how much fire they returned?

I believe the men who were there to witness these events over the bullshit story fuckhead Kerry is spewing. I have never heard of someone submitting there own award for a medal? That seems to me to be so fucking arrogant, but then of course it is the protestor Lurch Kerry.

From what I am gathering, the only reason the boat-crew member received the medal later on was because Kerry had put in HIS paperwork for the medal and his story claimed the boat was under fire.

Everything that I read leads me to believe that the Kerry camp is saying this guy lied... when in fact, it was Kerry's bullshit story that caused the guy to get a medal.

Maybe I'm wrong...

Baindaid bravery, from what I've heard.

A true warrior would've stayed with his fellow warriors, and fought too also, as per some of the stories I've heard, for however long the fighting existed, disreguarding his own injuries/ healing.


Semper Fi

Quoted: Have you ever read the award document given to you with any award? Even a simple Army commendation or Acheivement medal is written to sound so great. How else would anyone write something like that. The Scary Kerry camps only argument against the Swift Boat Vets is that the award says this and that is what happend.........BLAH BLAH BLAH......There sure is a hell of a lot of difference in the stories. If all of these boats were under HEAVY fire than surely there would be more people to tell of how much fire they returned? I believe the men who were there to witness these events over the bullshit story fuckhead Kerry is spewing. I have never heard of someone submitting there own award for a medal? That seems to me to be so fucking arrogant, but then of course it is the protestor Lurch Kerry.

COZ, I just finished an ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS deployment a couple of months ago (I did a 4187 inter-brigade transfer from my Cav' unit to a 12B Batt' that was deploying to the war but instead, got stuck on a chemical weapons depot for 14 months) and got everything from my 3rd ARCOM to any number of "War on terror" "Operation Noble Eagle 3" ect....awards.  Reading over the actual awards themselves (As they were read when awarded to me) you'd think I saved the world or something

FWIW, while I was deployed with my "New" unit my OLD unit (3/116th Cav') and my crew were activated and deployed to the sandbox

Quoted: Quoted: Have you ever read the award document given to you with any award? Even a simple Army commendation or Acheivement medal is written to sound so great. How else would anyone write something like that. The Scary Kerry camps only argument against the Swift Boat Vets is that the award says this and that is what happend.........BLAH BLAH BLAH......There sure is a hell of a lot of difference in the stories. If all of these boats were under HEAVY fire than surely there would be more people to tell of how much fire they returned? I believe the men who were there to witness these events over the bullshit story fuckhead Kerry is spewing. I have never heard of someone submitting there own award for a medal? That seems to me to be so fucking arrogant, but then of course it is the protestor Lurch Kerry. COZ, I just finished an ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS deployment a couple of months ago (I did a 4187 inter-brigade transfer from my Cav' unit to a 12B Batt' that was deploying to the war but instead, got stuck on a chemical weapons depot for 14 months) and got everything from my 3rd ARCOM to any number of "War on terror" "Operation Noble Eagle 3" ect....awards.  Reading over the actual awards themselves (As they were read when awarded to me) you'd think I saved the world or something Thank you! That's what wish people who aren't in the military could see. They're awards! They have to sound good. FWIW, while I was deployed with my "New" unit my OLD unit (3/116th Cav') and my crew were activated and deployed to the sandbox

Most of the awards and quarterly evaluations are "scripted". These are already in some kind of format where they just FILL IN THE BLANKS as needed. I worked at PSD (Personnel Support Detachment) in Camp Lejeune so I came across a lot of these things.

There is nothing wrong with the letters accompanying the award/medal providing the individual is worthy of such merit.

In the AF it is mandated that each type of medal will its own prefabricated statement.

Stuff gets worded fantastically for a lot of reasons.  I once stopped the worst war crimes since WWII.  Go figure; it's true, but maybe a little over-the-top.

1 of my Air Force Achievement Medals was given to me for performance in Doha, Qatar.

The funny thing about it was that prior to deployment there where 5 of us sitting in the office with our supervisor. He says to us, "3 of you need to volunteer to go to the desert". 2 people are completely worthless (1 borderline crazy and the other on a medical waiver whenever someone mentions the desert) so the 2 other "volunteers" besides myself look at each other knowing we can either "volunteer" or go anyway. So we "volunteered". Hey, we knew we were going anyway so we got a good laugh about the whole volunteering thing.

I did perform quite well while deployed but like many awards, reading them just seems to create an image of a person who was just a little bit over my head. Not every job I did was as great as what was cited. For the most part I was on my A-Game so I guess that was the ticket.

You know thinking back on that deployment I deserve every bit of praise in that award. I was kicking some (troubleshooting) butt as the sole jet engine mechanic on day shift.

Yes, sometimes awards aren't earned but sometimes they are.