the reason I post such articles is because I am opposed to keeping our youth in harms way when there is no tactics, strategy or objective. For troops who were injured in combat to be denied a honor because some politicians want to hold down the public's awareness of the death and casualty count that is REALLY occuring, is un-acceptable, and that's without regard to eating turkey in Baghdad for four hours while thousands are stuck there with no right to even speak with the press. I respect the move to go there and it was courageous true enough;Sen. Hillary Clinton (NY) did the same thing and that too was valiant. My concern is for the troops though and they come first to my mind. No greater citizens exist than those who are soldiers or fire fighters,(my first statement as the WTC building fell was, "You know something; there were firefighters going up those stairs and directing evacuation as people were running down to escape when that building fell") and I will always support their heroism and assert their right to credit for risking their lives for a cause. Feel free to post comment on this blog or e-mail me at: wahkonta@graffiti.net
Article follows:

-Caveat Lector- http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/7424577.htm



Posted on Fri, Dec. 05, 2003

Denial of Purple Heart medals raises questions about casualty count
BY PATRICK PETERSON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

GULFPORT, Miss. - (KRT) - An influential Mississippi congressman has raised the possibility that the Pentagon has undercounted combat casualties in Iraq after he learned that five members of the Mississippi National Guard who were injured Sept. 12 by a booby trap in Iraq were denied Purple Heart medals.

The guardsmen were wounded by an artillery shell that detonated as their convoy passed the tree in which it was hidden, but their injuries were classified as "noncombat," according to Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. Taylor, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, learned of the classification when he visited the most seriously injured of the guardsmen, Spc. Carl Sampson, 35, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

"How could no one have caught this?" Taylor said.

On Nov. 20, shortly after visiting Sampson, Taylor brought the matter to the attention of Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Purple Hearts quickly were awarded.

But Taylor said the incident raised concerns that Iraq combat casualties had been understated. He said Myers told him he'd been made aware of similar oversights.

"I'm probably going to send a memo out to the rest of the members of Congress and ask if anyone has had a similar incident," Taylor said Friday. "I just don't want to see anyone else who's been injured get cheated about their Purple Heart."

Defense Department statistics show that as of Thursday, some 2,150 service members had been wounded in action in Iraq, while 354 were injured in nonhostile incidents. Of 441 service members who've died in Iraq, 304 are listed as killed in hostile action; 137 deaths resulted from nonhostile action.

A Pentagon spokesman said the decision to award the Purple Heart was made at a unit level and that he couldn't explain how the misclassification occurred.

Members of the Mississippi National Guard were mystified. "Sampson should have already been awarded a Purple Heart," said Lt. Col. Tim Powell, a spokesman for the Guard. "An improvised explosive device built and placed with the intent to harm American soldiers is hostile."

Sampson, who sustained shrapnel wounds to his face and arms, is now hospitalized in Tampa, Fla.

END ARTICLE EXCERPT
NOTE: You can go to : http://www.iraqbodycount.net For more numbers as to this emerging travesty.
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