PURPLE HEART FOR PTSD????

[Rocky]

Should PTSD Victims Earn Purple Heart?

Stars and Stripes |Jeff Schogol | May 14, 2008

The veterans group for combat wounded troops whose
mission is topreserve the integrity of the Purple
Heart has come out against givingthe award to troops
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I don’t think people should get the Purple Heart for
almost gettingwounded," said Joe Palagyi, of the
Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Poll: Should PTSD victims earn thePurple Heart?
PTSD does not merit the Purple Heart, according to an
Armyregulation that lays out the criteria for the
award.

Recently, a military psychologist at Fort Bliss,
Texas, toldreporters during a roundtable that making
troops with PTSD eligible forthe Purple Heart could
help destigmatize the disorder.

RelatedOp-ed: Recognizing the Hidden Wounds of War

"These guys have paid at least a high -- as high a
price, some ofthem -- as anybody with a traumatic
brain injury, as anybody withshrapnel wound, and what
it does is it says this is the wound thatisn’t worthy,
and I say it is," said John E. Fortunato.

When asked about Fortunato’s suggestion later, Defense
SecretaryRobert Gates called it an "interesting idea,"
adding the matter is"clearly something that needs to
be looked into."

But Palagyi, who was awarded the Purple Heart for
service inVietnam, said PTSD does not meet the
standards for the award, theforerunner of which was
established by Gen. George Washington.

LearnMore at Military.com's PTSD Center

"The Purple Heart was set up for combat wounds, for
those who haveshed blood, and I believe that although
PTSD is a physical disease andis an injury ... [it]
does not qualify for the merit of Purple Heartbased on
that," he said Tuesday.

Injuries that merit the Purple Heart must happen in a
combat theaterand must be a direct result of enemy
action, said Jack Leonard, also ofthe Military Order
of the Purple Heart.

The group’s concern about PTSD is that it can be
caused by otherfactors, not necessarily the enemy.

"Did it occur in boot camp? Did it occur because of
the rough airflight into theater? Or did it occur
because an individual saw theresults of the Taliban
massacre of a village? I can’t answer that,"said
Leonard, who was awarded the Purple Heart after being
wounded inVietnam.

Stars and Stripes called the medical center where
Fortunato worksfor a response, but a spokesman there
referred questions to Army HumanResources Command,
adding that Fortunato should not have commented onthe
Purple Heart in the first place because the issue is
"out of ourmedical lane."

Leonard said he does not mean to downplay war’s
psychologicalinjuries, recounting how he is sure how
his father suffered from PTSDafter fighting in World
War II with the Marines.

"Like a flash in a pan, he would reach out and I mean
full-forcesmack with a balled fist, without any
indication that it was going tohappen, and you’d go,
‘What the hell -- what the hell just happened?’as you
picked yourself off the floor," Leonard said.

He said his father, who also served in the Korean War
and was closeto suicide at the end of his life, was
never awarded the Purple Heart.

Asked if his father should have been given the award,
Leonard saidno.

"There’s no physical manifestation of -- that he ever
shed blood,"Leonard said.

I have said that PTSD was a wound but one that you did not get a Purple Heart for but I don't believe, and this is just my opinion, that a Purple Heart should be issued for such a wound. If they do this then, to me, the Purple Heart will lose it's true meaning altogether.