Gender, Lies, and Valor: Part 1 - Lynch Deserved Praise, but Not the Medal
Gender, Lies, and Valor: Part
1 - Lynch Deserved Praise, but Not the Medal
DefenseWatch
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By Matthew Dodd
I, like most Americans, was very relieved and happy when I heard the
news that Pfc. Jessica Lynch and her fellow soldiers were rescued.
After hearing the horror stories about the torturous methods of the
former Iraqi
regime, it was all too easy to imagine the unimaginable happening
to our soldiers being held as prisoners of war (POWs). Knowing they
were all back under coalition control was joyous news.
The public media coverage of our Iraqi POW saga was impossible to ignore. I, too, was glued to the television when Pfc. Lynch arrived home and addressed the nation. I found her to be a charming, humble, sincere young woman who was obviously proud to be a soldier and extremely thankful for all the love, support, and encouragement she and her family received all throughout her ordeal. I am grateful that she is alive and for the fact that we have such fine young people voluntarily serving in our military.
However, despite all the hype, emotional appeal, and the apparent
dedicated lobbying efforts of many pushing their own agendas, I am
vehemently opposed to attaching the label "hero" to Pfc. Lynch.
Pfc. Lynch was a POW, not a wartime hero. A dictionary defines hero as "any person admired for courage, nobility, etc." From all that I have been able to learn about the circumstances surrounding her capture and her actions leading up to her rescue, I have seen nothing noble or courageous to admire.
She was a passenger in a vehicle in a convoy that took a wrong turn and ran into a deliberate ambush. Her vehicle crashed and she was so severely injured in the crash that she was knocked unconscious and unable to fight or resist capture. She was taken prisoner by her ambushers, given excellent medical care in a hospital, and was subsequently rescued from that hospital in a well-executed raid by well-trained forces.
From what I just summarized, the U.S. Army decided to give her a Bronze Star Medal with the following citation excerpts:
"For exemplary courage under fire during combat operations [from Mar
23-Apr 2, 2003 (11 days)] … Private First Class Lynch's bravery and
heart persevered while surviving in the ambush and captivity .… [Her]
belief in [her] Battalion's motto "One Team, One Fight" is in keeping
with the finest traditions of military service. Her honor, courage
and dedication reflect great credit upon herself, 507th
Maintenance Company, 3d
Infantry Division, Victory Corps, and The United States Army."
I have never written an Army Bronze Star Medal recommendation package. I have seen and written many Marine Corps Meritorious Masts (authorized and awarded by company commanders) for deserving Marines that contained more truth, details, and substance than Pfc. Lynch's pitifully weak citation above.
I suspect that Lynch's award was pre-approved at the highest levels, and that the task of writing the award package became a mere administrative "check-in-the-block." I somehow cannot believe that her award package was initiated and submitted by her unit, and subsequently judged on its own merits against other submitted awards, and then approved all the way up the chain of command by her corps commander and the secretary of the Army. Some news reports allege that Army officials pressed for a Silver Star medal for Lynch, but yielded when her unit resisted.
Regardless of how and when the decision to award the Bronze Star to Pfc. Lynch was made, it proves to me that the Army today has a blatant, systemic disregard for maintaining the highest standards for its highest combat awards.
Let me share with you my analysis of Lynch's citation as if I were a member of an awards board somewhere in Pfc. Lynch's chain-of-command:
Since Pfc. Lynch was either unconscious or incapacitated following the vehicle crash, her "exemplary courage under fire during combat operations" was limited to the few moments between the initiation of the ambush and the vehicle crash. I understand she did not fire her weapon at all so I wonder how she demonstrated her courage under fire.
Next, her "bravery and heart persevered while surviving in the ambush and captivity." That sentence tells me that she did not give up her will to live despite her extensive injuries. Being a fan of individual character, I appreciate her choice, but I do not see that character trait being justification for a combat award.
Her battalion had a catchy motto. She apparently believed in that motto. How did she show her belief in that motto, and how does her belief in that motto live up to "the finest traditions of military service?" Was she special among the members of her battalion by actually believing in the battalion motto?
As far as her honor, courage, and dedication reflecting great credit upon herself and her entire chain-of-command, I just do not see any evidence that she did anything above and beyond surviving her horrendous injuries and not giving up her will to live. I would hope most of her fellow soldiers did or would have done the same exact things if they found themselves in the same circumstances.
I have absolutely nothing against Pfc. Lynch. My only complaint is with the leaders in Lynch's chain of command who approved and then thrust this combat award upon her and nurtured the false myth that she is a heroic woman warrior. She was a good soldier who survived a tragic, combat-related accident of incompetence and was rescued by warriors who did more to earn the label "hero" than she did. Where are the awards and public media coverage for those heroes who rescued Lynch?
I admit that I am biased in my assessment of POW Lynch as a mislabeled war hero. I am biased by the heroic citations of our former POWs who earned the Medal of Honor. Two examples in particular:
Air Force Maj. George E. ("Bud") Day suffered a broken arm in three
places and a badly injured knee when he was shot down in North Vietnam.
He was captured, and interrogated and tortured in a prison camp. He
escaped and was eventually ambushed, wounded again, re-captured, and
returned to his captors. His citation noted his continuous maximum
resistance as "significant in saving the lives of fellow aviators
who were still flying against the enemy."
Navy Capt. James B. Stockdale ejected from his crippled plane and parachuted into North Vietnam where he was beaten in the streets by an angry mob, bound and captured, and refused favors in exchange for medical treatment on his severely broken leg. Recognized as the senior ranking U.S. prisoner responsible for organizing widespread resistance to their enemy captors, he was singled out for interrogation and attendant torture. Using self-disfiguration and inflicting a near fatal wound to himself as symbols of his willingness to die rather than capitulate, his actions led to his captors easing up on the harassment and torture of all prisoners, and "earned the everlasting gratitude of his fellow prisoners and of his country."
Let's put these three citations in perspective. We have two men who were badly injured prior to their capture, brutally tortured over a period of many years, continuously resisted their captors' efforts, and through their self-sacrificing leadership examples inspired their fellow prisoners and helped save their fellow prisoners' lives. They both earned our nation's highest combat honor.
Then we have Pfc. Lynch, who was given the Bronze Star, our nation's fourth-highest combat honor, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, suffering horrendous vehicle accident injuries that prevented her from resisting capture, receiving life-saving medical attention from her captors, and being rescued in a daring raid about two weeks after she was first captured.
What does the vast disparity in the standards for these combat awards say about the relative value and fairness of our combat awards system? Do we have a double standard for combat awards based on gender expectations?
One former Marine's e-mail to me said it best and inspired me to write this article:
"So let's use Lynch as the foundation for future medals. Since she never fired her weapon, then anyone who does fire it (at the enemy) receives a Silver Star. To shoot at the enemy and be fired at and even hit back, you receive the Distinguished Service Cross …. To shoot the enemy and get hit back and actually kill the enemy, wow, you get a Purple Heart, campaign ribbon, combat action ribbon, and Medal of Honor. At the rate this is going, I am going to find out what company is authorized to sell these medals and buy stock in that company."
My hat is off to Pfc. Lynch, the former Iraqi POW, but not to the farcical "war hero" her shameless chain-of-command would have all of us believe she was.
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