General Bone Spurs, Atta Boy Pete and Stolen Valor
Sunlit7 op
Bronze Stars, like those Hegseth earned, are common among military officers
Pete Hegseth Is a 'Changed' Man: Mom Comes to His Rescue
I kept wondering the last couple weeks if anyone had bothered to see if Pete Hegseths bronze stars were stars of valor or service bronze stars. Finally, someone got around to answering that question. What led me to be curious was there never any mention of heroic acts attributed to him saving the life/lives of others, or that he'd been injured himself while serving. Those attributes are pretty heroic to achieve two bronze stars, yet no one was reporting on them. It would seem it would be rather tough situation to earn one, but two bronze stars, that would be commendable to a point of asking why the exclusion as to how he obtained them. I went searching for an answer. The answer is that most people, like me, don't realize that bronze stars are given for two reasons, for valor in combat, and for service to the military for commendable performance and conduct while serving, with Hegseth having earned the latter. To claim, like president elect Trump did that Hegseth was a decorated army combat veteran with two bronze stars and a combat infantry man badge, without making a distinction of their meaning, is considered stolen valor by many military veterans who earned a bronze star of valor. Though Hegseth hasn't personally embellished or inflated the reasons given for the bronze stars, none the less, he hasn't publicly corrected the president elect on his statement and that the bronze stars he earned are commonly handed out.
Military experts say there is a mistaken belief among much of the American public that the Bronze Star is a rarefied award exclusively for battlefield heroics, which has distorted and inflated its significance in many cases. The U.S. military issues two versions of the award: one with a “V” device denoting valor in combat, and the other for commendable job performance on deployments, or “meritorious service” in military parlance.
They are more inclined to be along the lines of an atta boy, military leaders who can recommend awards for subordinates had often complained about the difficulty of recognizing junior troops, and a prevailing belief that rank-and-file personnel rated more limited recognition for performance outside of extraordinary acts of selflessness:
.Members of the enlisted corps have characterized the medal for meritorious service as a “participation trophy” for officers who do what is expected of them. Enlisted leaders, who can submit award recommendations for subordinates, have long complained about the difficulty of recognizing junior troops with awards. They point to the military’s officer-driven culture and a prevailing belief that rank-and-file personnel rate more limited recognition for their performance outside of extraordinary acts of selflessness.
Selflessness just isn't in most people's vocabulary of who they are learning Pete Hegseth is. Which leads me to my next question I've become curious about after Hegseth in an op he wrote described himself as "a young US army lieutenant who had completed a combat tour in Iraq". The problem I have with that, and if anyone can establish a different finding on the issue than what I have been able to come up with, that's fine, but everything out there seems to indicate Hegseth was a National Guard service member. There's no mention he may have been part of the Army National Guard, which is on the federal level of the National Guards, whereas the National Guard is on the state level but they both can augment the active-duty army when needed in a supporting services roll. Both the army and national guard go through vigorous training but there is a difference and distinct attributes between the two. Therefore, that distinction, once again, needs to be made. If you are an army recruit you are conducting land based military operations worldwide, not serving in a supporting role where harm is less inevitable. I can stand corrected if someone can find where it was established that Hegseth joined the army and not the national guard, the army requires the stamina to endure immediate threats of harm on an ongoing basis. If you lack that stamina, you shouldn't be claiming that honor.
This isn't a role where a president elect should be placing an individual who is considered rank and file, give them an atta boy if they don't mess up, or a situation where, as his mother had expressed, we've all made mistakes, we've all, and she'd challenge any who thinks they haven't, making them more qualified, to throw that first stone:
"We've all made mistakes. We've all. And I would challenge anyone who thinks they're qualified to throw the first stone."
This is an individual who didn't just write her son any ordinary email, towards the end of what she wrote, she doubled down, it wasn't just a sad truth, it was a sad, sad truth. It was scathing, no matter how much one regrets they said it, doubling down was sending him a message he needed to be awaken by. Despite all her pleas that her son isn't the man he was seven years ago, that he's changed, he's a new man, is a self-admission of everything she said about him in that scathing email that she didn't mean but now, everyone else is lying about. He is redeemed, he is forgiven, doesn't mean by the people who were harmed by his behaviors either emotionally or physically.
They are no less a liar than she said her son was seven years ago, mother like son, is what I'd say in this situation, those individuals are no less scared than she was when she said threats were dangerous when elaborating on the threats she received after the release of the email, she called it a despicable way to treat anybody, and hard on families. She wants people across the country to have compassion toward the difficult time the family was having during the divorce from his second marriage that led her to write her scathing email, and to understand how hard it has been on the family what they are going through and the despicable treatment she has been going through being threatened with no regard in the same sense given to those who were victims of her son should they come publicly forward. We know they exist except he'd like you to believe that his downfall into alcoholism never had negative consequences on anyone else except himself and conveys it could have been worse, trying to convey sympathy upon himself for nothing committed suicide
".I’ve been through a lot: combat tours, job changes, divorces and family challenges. (Yes, I love my mom very much, and she loves me.) I have always led with honesty, integrity and passion. Tragically, many veterans never find the purpose for their next chapter and succumb to the bottle, depression or, worst of all, suicide. I understand what they are facing—because I’ve lived it."
If you read though that last op, there's a lot of stolen valor there. Every opportunity that arises he mentions the battlefield. He wasn't on the battlefield in the true sense of the word. The men who lost their lives on the frontlines and the people who survived being around him in his personal life were. If this man survives the nomination, there is really something wrong here. Everyone else wasn't the problem, but he'd like you to believe they were.
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