[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: When Actions Speak Louder Than Medals

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When Actions Speak Louder Than Medals

August 27, 2004
 By LARRY HEINEMANN 



 

Chicago — When I came back from Vietnam, I always
thought that the next argument was going to be between
those who went overseas and those who stayed at home. But
it turns out that the big argument now is between those
veterans who thought the war was right and those who
didn't. And further, it is amazing to me that the argument
should revolve around medals and Purple Hearts and
honorable service. 

The plain fact is that in Vietnam medals were handed out
like popcorn, right down to the Good Conduct Medal and the
Rifle Sharpshooter Badge, particularly among career-minded
officers and NCO's. Ticket-punching lifers, we called them
with all the derision that the phrase implies; they seemed
more interested in tending their precious careers than
anything else. 

I know officers who were given the Bronze Star for simply
being in country (the ultimate in merit badges). An Air
Force pilot told me that his commanding officer suggested
that he write himself up for a Distinguished Flying Cross
on no particular account, and that he, the commander, would
sign it. To his credit, my friend did not do so. By the
same token, a writer friend of mine keeps his Bronze Star
to prove to his children and grandchildren that despite
what they may hear about Vietnam, he acted the way an adult
is supposed to act, with compassion and grit, and that if
he is not especially proud of his service in Vietnam, he's
not ashamed of it, either. 

Regardless of career ambitions, there were officers and
NCO's who understood the unvarnished reality of the war,
and made no bones about it. When I left Fort Knox, Ky., for
Vietnam in 1967, the sergeant (a full-blood Navajo Indian)
called me into his office and told me flat out, "Remember,
Heinemann, this is not a white man's war." After I'd been
in country seven or eight months, a lieutenant with a
degree in history took over our platoon. He gathered us
young sergeants around him and said that our job was to
make sure that everyone got home in one piece. We told him
that his was a very good plan and how could we help. 

The awards for Purple Hearts were mostly initiated by the
medical staff. A wound is hard to fake, and you didn't put
in for a Purple Heart, it was given to you whether you
wanted one or not, or deserved it. And anyone who went
looking for a Purple Heart was called "John Wayne," and
avoided like the plague. 

The veterans who seem eager to go after John Kerry remind
me of the guys who thought, and perhaps still think, that
the war was a right and righteous undertaking, and
ultimately winnable. But to say that we could have won the
war is the same as saying that we didn't fill our hearts
with enough hate. Remember: we were not pleasant people,
down where the rubber met the road, so to speak, and the
war was not a pleasant business. John Kerry wasn't the only
veteran to come back from the war spiritually exhausted and
morally outraged - ready, willing and able to denounce his
own government for its conduct of the war. Well before the
end of my tour in March 1968, most everyone around me knew
the war to be a fool's errand, but if there was any antiwar
sentiment it didn't get much more sophisticated than the
vast and colorful repertoire of curses you cannot repeat in
a family newspaper. 

But we knew what we saw, we knew what we did, and we knew
what we had become. Soldiering, the downward path to wisdom
to be sure. In 1971, when John Kerry sat before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, the essence of his message was
exact: many a mean thing was done, sir, from the Oval
Office on down, and in the spirit of meanness. We love our
nation dearly, but oppose this terrible war. Our country
seems to have forfeited its moral authority, and that makes
our hearts sore. 

And all these years later - the name-calling and nitpicking
about wounds suffered and medals earned and honorable
service aside - the important matter is that, when push
came to shove, Lieutenant Kerry turned his boat around and
drove back into a firefight to fetch an Army Green Beret
out of the river. I know that if it had been me in the
water, I would surely remember the man's name, the look on
his face, and the reach of his arm for the rest of my life;
I would be sure to tell my grandchildren about him. 

Larry Heinemann is the author of "Paco's Story," which
received the National Book Award, and a forthcoming memoir
about his experiences in Vietnam. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/opinion/27heinemann.html?ex=1094635140&ei=1&en=e414d846a6d1d209


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