Why This Stuff Matters

In the William Derek Church discussion, regular TAH reader and occasional commenter Wesley Wilson (Enigma4you) left a comment that very eloquently points out why stolen valor matters.  The comment is focused specifically on the Purple Heart, but the sentiment is the same – albeit different in degree, perhaps – for valor awards, service awards, and special qualifications/service.

I thought the comment was worth repeating, virtually unchanged and nearly in full, here.  I certainly can’t say it better.

In so many places around the world right now US service men and women are defending and protecting our way of life.  As you and I sit safe in our home my own son is getting ready to deploy on the USS Philippine Sea.  My best friend’s son is in his second deployment in Afghanistan.  He has already gotten one Purple Heart this deployment.  I can’t think of a single Military award that is more unwanted by those that truly have it than the Purple Heart.

Let me explain to you the grief and fear that goes along with that Medal.  The Mother, Wife, Father, etc . . . , get a phone call that their loved one is hurt.  They don’t know how bad or if he will live, they sit and worry.  In the hours that follow every possible outcome is played out over and over again.  Because you don’t know if they will live, if they do will they recover? Friends start to call, family starts to come over, you have no idea what to say to them any more than they do to you.  If you are lucky you get another call sooner rather than later telling you the status.  At the same time you are sitting helpless, the person yo love more than your own life is hurt and 10 thousand miles away and there is not a damned thing you can to to make it better.  What worse are the injuries that are bad enough to get the PH but not bad enough to get them out of the combat zone.  They sit in a hospital in Afghanistan and try to talk to you via Skype, while at the same time you are on the phone with the doctor wondering why your loved one had no facial expression, can’t find the right word and for all the world is looking like a scared hurt little boy, rather than the warrior you talk to a few short days before.  A few moths go by and he gets the Medal pinned on.  You get a copy of it sent to you and every time you see it you remember the fear and helplessness you felt.

Mr. Church.  This is what you have faked, this is why we loath you.  This is why it is so relentless.  Every year I stand and hold a flag so many times at so many funerals for Veterans and those KIA that I no longer count them.  I was at one a week ago, for my own father in law.  He got the PH in Korea.  In the 15 years I knew him he never once said a word about it.  We all knew the wounds he received so many years ago caused him pain every day but he never once complained.

In CA right now there is a SSG that was shot by a sniper in Afghanistan.  He will be in a wheel chair the rest of his life, his young son will never get a piggy back ride from his dad.  A Purple Heart is given to a service man or woman who is injured/wounded in combat.  I hate that award, I wish the families of those that have it got something to show for the pain they feel every time someone gets it.

I am fortunate that I can travel. Every year I go to Arlington.  I stand on that hallowed ground and thank god for what we have in our Country.  I see those grave stones and I think of them as a forest that protects our way of life.  Each one represents and man or woman who gave all or part or their life for our freedom.  That forest of stone is watered by the tears of the loved one that represent them.

Mr. Church, you have committed a huge injustice to every man and woman who has ever worn the uniform or shed a tear for someone who did.  You claim false honors, you falsely claim to have been one of those that shed blood for our way of life.  You come here and give a half-assed apology, never admitting to any wrongdoing, and back that up with a more lies.  You claim that we involved your family, the truth is you did the second you lied.  The sad part is that you think you have been wronged.  You yell foul or want us to ease up.   I have news, this is not a game, like many of the honorable men and women who have posted here I see you as an enemy if our nation who must be defeated.  You and those like you are a plague.  You are a thief.  Your family, community and nation have the right to see you as you really are, not as the fraud you built your life of lies on.  It shames me to think that you have as much right to call yourself an American as those that died to protect our way of life and who sacred honor you have stolen.  The name of this site is This Ain’t Hell, but it will work as hell for you until you either truly repent with a real apology that calls out your sins, or you meet your maker and are condemned to the eternal damnation of the real hell.

Well said, my friend.  Damn well said.

Author’s note:  edited to explicitly credit the original author by-name.  Name was omitted originally to provide some degree of identity screening in the event the original author did not want their name prominently featured here at TAH.  Permission to use the original author’s name has been given below.

Category: Reality Check