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PTSD DOESN'T MERIT PURPLE HEART, SAYS MOPH -- Military
Order of the Purple Heart: "MOPH takes issue with
recent
attempts to degrade the basic requirements and
considerations
for the award to include diagnosed illness..."
We have two pieces of information...first, a
press release from MOPH...and, then a story from Stars and Stripes.
For more about the Purple Heart, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=purple+heart&op=ph
MOPH press release here...
http://www.purplehea
rt.org/Membership/Public/Articles/PTSDPressRelease05082008.aspx
Press release below:
-------------------------
MILITARY ORDER OF THE PURPLE HEART
National Headquarters
5413-B Backlick Road, Springfield, VA 22151
(703) 642-5360 Fax: (703) 642-2054
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 8, 2008
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr. Joseph W. Palagyi
National Adjutant
Military Order of the Purple Heart (703) 642-5360
A recent article in the military press alluded to the possibility that the
Purple Heart Medal might be awarded in cases of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, (PTSD), as being under consideration by the Office of the
Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Robert Gates.
A spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, (MOPH), was quoted
as saying, “The Purple Heart Medal is awarded to those Combat Wounded men
and women, who as Members of the Armed Forces, shed blood by an instrument
of war in the hands of an enemy of the United States of America.
” Our Founding Father, General George Washington, conceived the Medal of
Merit and awarded this medal in 1782 to three stalwart soldiers during the
Revolutionary War. In 1932, General Douglas MacArthur returned the honored
tradition of awarding the Purple Heart and gave it the dignity it deserves
as we march forward in the war against terrorism.
The MOPH takes issue with recent attempts to degrade the basic
requirements and considerations for the award to include diagnosed
illness, disease, and non-combat injuries suffered or incurred in
combatant theatres of operations.
The National Commander of the MOPH, Henry J. Cook
III, a retired Army Special Forces Colonel said, “It is ironic that on May
8, 1945 the Nazi’s surrendered, and today, sixty four years later we have
an opportunity to express our most devoted feelings in homage to not only
the greatest generation who served their Country, but to all those who
have shed their life’s blood in sacrifice for the greater cause.” The
Ocean’s, battlefield’s, and cemeteries of the Atlantic
 and
Pacific, France, Italy, Belgium, Guam, the Philippines, and now Iraq and
Afghanistan, bear mute testimony to those who paid the full measure of
devotion with their lives. The memories of far off battles at Midway, the
North Atlantic and the Coral Sea, on Corregidor, in Bastogne, on Iwo Jima,
at St Mere Eglise, Anzio, Inchon, Chosen Reservoir, Khe Sahn, Hue, the A-Shau,
Mekong Delta, Cu Chi, Tay Ninh, AnWar, Bagdad, and Bagrum, are steeped in
the blood of Patriots and sends a resounding pledge that the Purple Heart
Medal shall be for those who have shed their blood.
“Today, as a ‘Band of Brothers,’ we must withstand courageously, any
attempt at degrading our most prized Purple Heart Medal,” said MOPH’s
National Service Director Jack Leonard. Leonard also concludes that PTSD
and TBI are issues that merit heightened attention in the medical and
mental health communities, but not for the issuance of a Purple Heart
Medal.
The Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Purple Heart Service
Foundation stand in harmony and are dedicated to providing and protecting
benefits and entitlements not only for the recipients of the Purple Heart
Medal, but to all Veterans who have taken the pledge to serve faithfully
the United States of America, and to defend the Constitution of the United
States. “41,047 fraternal members of our beloved Order stand at the ready
to defend, honor, and cherish the pureness of the Purple Heart”, said
Joseph Palagyi, the National Adjutant of the Military Order of the Purple
Heart.
-------------------------
Story here...
http://www.stripes.com/
article.asp?section=104&article=54773&source=rss
Story below:
-------------------------
Group says PTSD doesn’t merit Purple Heart
By Jeff Schogol
Stars and Stripes
The veterans group for combat wounded troops whose mission is to preserve
the integrity of the Purple Heart has come out against giving the award to
troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I don’t think people should get the Purple Heart for almost getting
wounded," said Joe Palagyi, of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
PTSD does not merit the Purple Heart, according to an Army regulation that
lays out the criteria for the award.
Recently, a military psychologist at Fort Bliss, Texas, told reporters
during a roundtable that making troops with PTSD eligible for the Purple
Heart could help destigmatize the disorder.
"These guys have paid at least a high — as high a price, some of them — as
anybody with a traumatic brain injury, as anybody with shrapnel wound, and
what it does is it says this is the wound that isn’t worthy, and I say it
is," said John E. Fortunato.
When asked about Fortunato’s suggestion later, Defense Secretary Robert
Gates called it an "interesting idea," adding the matter is "clearly
something that needs to be looked into."
But Palagyi, who was awarded the Purple Heart for service in Vietnam, said
PTSD does not meet the standards for the award, the forerunner of which
was established by Gen. George Washington.
"The Purple Heart was set up for combat wounds, for those who have shed
blood, and I believe that although PTSD is a physical disease and is an
injury ... [it] does not qualify for the merit of Purple Heart based on
that," he said Tuesday.
Injuries that merit the Purple Heart must happen in a combat theater and
must be a direct result of enemy action, said Jack Leonard, also of the
Military Order of the Purple Heart.
The group’s concern about PTSD is that it can be caused by other factors,
not necessarily the enemy.
"Did it occur in boot camp? Did it occur because of the rough air flight
into theater? Or did it occur because an individual saw the results of the
Taliban massacre of a village? I can’t answer that," said Leonard, who was
awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded in Vietnam.
Stars and Stripes called the medical center where Fortunato works for a
response, but a spokesman there referred questions to Army Human Resources
Command, adding that Fortunato should not have commented on the Purple
Heart in the first place because the issue is "out of our medical lane."
Leonard said he does not mean to downplay war’s psychological injuries,
recounting how he is sure how his father suffered from PTSD after fighting
in World War II with the Marines.
"Like a flash in a pan, he would reach out and I mean full-force smack
with a balled fist, without any indication that it was going to happen,
and you’d go, ‘What the hell — what the hell just happened?’ as you picked
yourself off the floor," Leonard said.
He said his father, who also served in the Korean War and was close to
suicide at the end of his life, was never awarded the Purple Heart.
Asked if his father should have been given the award, Leonard said no.
"There’s no physical manifestation of — that he ever shed blood," Leonard
said.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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