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Purple Heart opinions?
Txs
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Local Vet Set To Break His Purple Heart The Express-Times 10/08/01BETHLEHEM - City resident Angel Rosario on Thursday will dust off the Purple Heart he received after four bullets hit him during a 1969 ambush near Quang Tri, Vietnam. He'll carry his medal to the Colonial Industrial Quarter of the old city near the tannery where he'll lay it down and smash it with a sledgehammer. "I had great pride in my Purple Heart. It was the only symbol of honor, pride and recognition my country had for my conscious effort in the war," Rosario said. "Now it has been watered down to the status of a Boy Scout's merit badge." Rosario's ire is aimed at the U.S. Defense Department's decision to award the Purple Heart to military personnel who perished or were injured in the Sept. 11 ist attack on the Pentagon. A Defense Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., confirmed Friday that victims who wore the uniform will receive the medal. Details are not yet available. Rosario, 51, goes out of his way to honor those who died tragically nearly a month ago. "I do not belittle the events that took place on nine-11. It was horrific, and the men and women who perished should be honored. But leave the Purple Heart to the soldiers who consciously fight and die for America, " he said. For the West Goepp Street man, the issue boils down to a soldier's state of mind. He explains that a soldier - he was a Marine lance corporal - in a hostile combat zone must live with the eternal tension that comes with knowing in the next 30 seconds, he could be . "Sitting in an office in America planning for tomorrow's soccer game is not the same as wondering if you'll be alive tomorrow," Rosario said. He asks incredulously, "Should we give Purple Hearts to every soldier who dies in an automobile accident?" On March 25, 1969, the day before his 19th birthday, Rosario and his unit fought the enemy all day near the border with Laos. He was looking forward to a two-week leave as soon as he got out of the bush. "We thought we had them whopped, but I guess not." A shot rang out and caught Rosario in his upper thigh. Within five to 10 seconds, another three shots hit him in the right arm, chest and then the back. "It was funny," he said. "The first shot took me down. The rest of them felt like cigarette burns." The few seconds of chaos were followed by silence. Rosario scrambled behind a tree, then shots came again with bullets chipping the bark from the trunk and wood flying all around him. Rosario was evacuated to the Navy hospital ship USS Sanctuary off the Vietnam coast. His worst wound was in his arm, where the bullet ripped out a mass of arteries and veins. He returned to his home in Brooklyn, N.Y., was released from St. Albans Hospital after four months' rehabilitation, and was eventually released from active duty, due to his wounds. The ugly bruise still on his arm reminds him of how the Purple Heart, pinned to him while he lay aboard the hospital ship, has also been bruised. This isn't the first time the issue has surfaced. Rosario decries the awarding of the Purple Heart to three soldiers in The Persian Gulf War nine years ago. Their claim to fame - "They got lost in the desert," he says. "How does that feel to a quadriplegic from Vietnam?" And in 1986, eight soldiers received the award after being injured in the ist ing of the LaBelle Discotheque in Berlin, Germany. Vietnam veterans were outraged then for the same reason Rosario is outraged now. The gesture, though well-meant, is inappropriate, he said. "They were shaking their booty in a dance club," he said. Rosario said the Department of Defense should develop a new medal for these new and dangerous times for soldiers wounded during istic happenstance. "Maybe they can call it a Freedom medal and incorporate elements of the Pentagon attack in it," he said. "Maybe they can use the plane in the design." Rosario suggested that Purple Hearts are going to the victims, or their families, because the attacks were so awful and have led to such a great display of patriotism that no one wants to object. Rosario does object. "Leave the Purple Heart alone," he said. Rosario said he has written to the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the American Legion about the issue. He belongs to both organizations "I haven't heard from them," he said. So on Thursday, he'll be at the tannery at 10 a.m. to sacrifice his honor. He chose the spot because the medal was important to the colonial revolutionary period. George Washington himself approved the first use of the medal Aug. 7, 1782 in Newburgh, N.Y. "I want to make a statement to bring a sense of awareness to it," Rosario said of his sledgehammer plan. "I'm not interested in influencing other vets - they understand. I want the public in general to see what we see as the medal's degradation." There's another reason. What can he tell his children and grandchildren about his sacrifice if it no longer means anything, he asked. "I've had it for 30 years, and every once in a while I show it to my children and they say, `Wow Dad, that's real neat.' I use it to teach the kids to stand up for their beliefs. When I lay that sledgehammer on it, it will hurt. But it's going to hurt more if I don't make my statement."
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