Is it true they gave out Purple Hearts like candy on Vietnam?

Is that just something Gen X says to trigger boomers or is it true?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Medal inflation has always been a thing. In WW2 infantry eventually made a tradition out of wearing only a CIB to reject it.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      WW2 was the end. Everything after WW2 look at the amount of MoH silver stars and crosses given out. It cratered. It's actually become an issue because in gwot the MoH was like 90% posthumous which was never its goal.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        The only thing above and beyond Tlthe call of duty to do over there was dive on grenades because you're fighting an enemy that refuses pitched battles

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        to be fair, the MoH's goal originally was to encourage voluntary sign ups during the civil war. It was literal propaganda in the form of chest candy, where officers wrote entire regiments in for it.
        It was even awarded for the conducting of Indian massacres. The army was originally against it because medals were a European tradition, and seen as un-American until it was deemed to be useful. On the flip side, the Confederates were so strapped for metal that the closest thing they had was the roll of honour, being a paper listing.
        It wasn't until the 20s that the medal was reformed around the French Legion of Honour to be meaningful, and even then, Macnamara got one as a political token.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    my gandma wasnt even in vietnam and she got a purple heart lol

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    To my understanding you can theoretically get one from sprained ankle.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    My dad was in Vietnam and was wounded twice. Once was when he was grazed across the chest requiring stitches (left a noticeable scar). The other time was after taking RPG shrapnel in his ass cheek which sent him to Japan for physical therapy, was sent back to ‘nam. I can’t say much but going off this the indication is that the wound would need to be somewhat serious. At least enough to require hospitalization.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      No.
      If blood is shed by enemy action.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymouse

    My uncle was in Vietnam, got a purple heart on two occasions. First one is when a bullet grazed his leg. 2nd is when he played hot potatoe with a grenade some one threw at him.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Be boomer
    >Recieve draft notice for Vietnam during raging drug orgy
    >Spend a year carrying heavy things and being shot at in exchange for enough money to buy a house and a car
    >On my last day in theater my unit is told to assemble in formation and stand at attention
    >We just kind of wander around out of uniform because standards don't exist for us
    >The division CO gets up on a stand in front of us with a scoop and a bucket of medals
    >He starts scooping medals out of the bucket and throwing them onto the ground around us
    >Recieve three purple hearts and a congressional medal of honor
    >Go home
    >One day while I'm sobering up from a heroin binge I hear on tv that we retreated from Vietnam and our ally was conquered by the North Vietnamese
    >Spend the rest of my life telling people that we didn't actually lose the war and that I'm a cool badass supersoldier
    >Blame the drug-induced paranoia and jumpiness on PTSD for free bennies
    Life was hard for them.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      fake and gay

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        no shit?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        newbie detected

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          fake and gay is from a time where PrepHole had not yet leaked into the general population, its a early youtube thing.
          >tell me how I know your an underage zoomer.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Lotta people got tagged, it weren't no gwot

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    My uncle had 5 purple hearts from Vietnam over multiple tours. 4 tours per my dad who was also a Ranger but was not called to active duty. My uncle was a badass though and all of his were earned , at least required medical attention. Shot twice (separately), grenade/explosion shrapnel twice (separately) bayonet stab once. He passed in ‘10 so his medals are no mine. I have a new case for them since his case was damaged but havent swapped them yet.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >bayonet stab.
      That's hardcore.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        As told by my uncle who was a larger man at that time…. 6’3” and probably about 225 all muscle: they were in an active gun fight with the cong and Uncle ran out of ammo. He jumped into the nearest trench to get under the fire. As he landed he realized it was a cong trench which were much more V shaped than U shaped like American trenches. The cong were smaller and didnt need to be as wide. Upon jumping in Uncle quickly realized he was stuck. Shortly after that a cong jumped in right beside him maybe about a foot away. The cong pointed his gun at Uncle then stabbed him in the shoulder with the bayonet. My Uncle, a much larger man swatted the rifle then with all his might wound up and forearmed the cong right in the face knocking him out. Right after that he feels hands on each side. It was fellow Americans pulling him out of the trench. Battle eventually ended and he got medical attention for the stab along with a purple heart.

        He also mentioned for his shrapnel wounds the field medic super glued the wounds until he could be taken back for proper medical attention.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          I should also add my Uncles assumption was the cong soldier also ran out of ammo and chose to jump into the trench. Which is why he stabbed him and didnt shoot him.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >did a war with a lot of injuries give out a lot of medals you get for getting injured
    We may never know.

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >get medical treatment for something
    >said medical treatment is now on your file
    >purple heart achieved

    People were getting purple hearts for STDs.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Not "like candy" per se, but there was no uniform standard for the purple heart at the time. At the time the purple heart was for any injury in service - self inflicted, accidental, anything. It just had to be noted, recorded and recommended for by a superior officer.

    This meant that soldiers posted closer to rear-echelons were more likely to get purple hearts because their injuries were more likely to be noted and documented.

    Soldiers closer to the front lines or in the field might become seriously injured, but receive appropriate care in action. A often repeated example is a soldier who lost a finger to shrapnel, was able to cauterize the wound after stopping the bleeding, and then was denied a purple heart later because he "did not need medical care for the wound at the time."

    Or as one anon put it, guys got purple hearts for seeing the base doctor for an STD, while a guy with a shrapnel would that got stitched up the field wouldn't.

    Due to these controversies, the purple heart's criteria were reformed to only be awarded for wounds caused by enemy action. They also introduced standardized paper work for medical personnel to fill out and took away the general authority for NCO and non-medical personnel to recommend for purple hearts.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You have to admit, it would be pretty funny to actually have a Purple Heart for an STD

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >At the time the purple heart was for any injury in service - self inflicted, accidental, anything.

      You have to admit, it would be pretty funny to actually have a Purple Heart for an STD

      >Purple Heart for an STD
      Too bad this is total B.S, and that there are moron gullible enough to believe and repeat it.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >At the time the purple heart was for any injury in service - self inflicted, accidental, anything. It just had to be noted, recorded and recommended for by a superior officer.
      Did they lower the standards after WW2? In WW2 it had to be inflicted by the enemy. There's a pretty well known case of a sgt getting stuck by a private's bayonet after a case of mistaken identity and not getting the Purple Heart.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    My grandpa got incendiary burns from a bombing in WWII (was part of an AA team) and didn’t get it. Granted it wasn’t life threatening but he had burn scars

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      he probably would have received one... if he hadnt been fighting for Nazi Germany, LOL

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      My grandpa got a really bad hangover from drinking torpedo juice in WWII (was on a Balao class sub) and didn't get it either

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    they had made millions of them for a planned invasion of japan that never happened so why not give them out on later wars

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Book I am reading about a LRRP/ Ranger in Nam 68-69 includes him being wounded a few times.
    >First one is grenade shrapnel embeded in his skin, he cuts it out with his kabar and then it gets infected for months: no PH
    >One of his guys catches a bullet fragment to the neck, non-lifethreatening: they joke that he'll be wanting a purple heart for that, they all actually get a Bronze Star because they end up rescuing S Vn hostages.
    >Shot in the bicep by a x39 point blank during an ambush
    Silver Star and PH
    >final wound he recieves results in his hospitalization, and him being sent home, PH

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    According to one of my friends who served in Desert Storm, they did then too.
    He was standing around while, about a hundred fifty yards away, EOD guys were clearing mines. They carried out a controlled detonation to clear one of the mines and a small piece of shrapnel happened to hit my buddy in the leg. It was basically just a cut but he received the PH because he was "wounded by an enemy weapon while on duty". He thought it was a fricking joke.

  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    military cheevos still crack me up

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    A humvee gunner in my platoon received a purple heart in Iraq when an IED went off and a small piece hit his wrist.
    The size of the "wound" was no bigger than a pin prick.
    My truck was hit too and as far as I know I didn't get a scratch, just bad concussion. Had I known a pin prick would get my a purple heart I would have found a thumb tack.
    Medals in the US military are fricking moronic, and for the most part don't mean shit short of valor devices/awards.

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >purple heart is for wounded in combat
    >literally anyone who lived and made it back had been wounded

    I mean, Christ, I don't know of anyone who was in Vietnam that *wasnt* fricking wounded OP.

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Should I get disabled veteran plates?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >vd sample

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      better than a bumper sticker
      I'm 60% service connected, do I qualify for this plate?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Idk what state you're in but in virginia ANY rating qualifies you for this plate. 10% for a scar? DISABLED VETERAN COMING THRU LMAO.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          i meant this for you

          Based welfare veteran, thanks I'll look more into it.
          Heil Hitler

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Definitely, costs me $4 a year to renew my registration lmao

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      That shit is like the boomer version of "Disabled/autistic/queer - My pronouns are she/her"

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Based welfare veteran, thanks I'll look more into it.
        Heil Hitler

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      yes. Really, yes. My dad is diabled and needs a disabled placard, but can't get one from the state. My sister is a disabled vet, and can. She got one in order to cut the walking he has to do in a parking lot. Get it, someone may need it.

  20. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    It was the NAM!

    I was working at a VA today so much funny shit.
    >motivational wall art for the stairs. Not just calories. Each floor had art and an American history story
    >7th floor I look back and huge pic of Robert LEE based af
    >10th floor "YOU MADE IT 100 calories burned" Operator with stealth heli on the wall
    >giant mural with every known detail of the bin laden raid.
    >Walking out see the corvette license place "DOCinNAM"

  21. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    No, it's not true.
    There were more earned purple hearts because more people got wounded. The real inflation has always been officers writing themselves in for medals such as the bronze star.

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