Since Trump’s “acquistion” of a purple heart, I got to thinking about MAS*H (TV series). Certainly not a documentary, it does have the reputation of being more or less true to life.
I said that to say this: in reading about the qualifications for receiving a purple heart (here: Purple Heart - Wikipedia
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(bolding mine)
There were exceptions in the show, such as self-inflicted injuries, but my question is, why didn’t the majority of patients receive the award? Because it was a big deal when it was passed out, but is it mainly because the soldier’s commander has to think it’s a big enough deal? Do you need to be a Sgt. York type rather than just be a run-of-the-mill soldier wounded in combat?
I admittedly haven’t seen MAS*H (it was before my time), but I would imagine that having a pro forma scene where every patient gets a Purple Heart would have gotten boring and that time would be better served narratively by Hawkeye and Pierce getting more quips.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I recall only one episode mentioning the Purple Heart…where Major Frank Burns’ back goes out, and he claims it is an injury in a war zone thereby making him eligible. (Although, one would think the injury should occur in battle.) As for the other soldiers, I think it is safe to assume their Purple Hearts were in the mail.
IIRC, Frank Burns actually got two Purple Hearts during the course of the show, both of which were stolen by Hawkeye and given to patients. The first one was given to Ron Howard portraying an underage soldier who’d been sent to the 4077th for an appendectomy. The second was given to a newborn Korean infant who had been wounded in utero when her mother was shot.
Another Purple Heart reference: During Col. Potter’s first episode running the 4077th, he , Hawkeye and BJ are drinking moonshine from the still in the Swamp. Potter recalls, 'I had a still like this on Guam, until it blew up. He then leans in and adds, ‘That’s how I got my Purple Heart.’
I must be thinking of his second one. Because I remember an episode where Burns got a Purple Heart and the citation said he had been struck by shell fragments. And Hawkeye protested they were egg shell fragments.
I would think that being awarded any medal while a patient at a forward operating hospital would be rare or actually never happened. Those patients would have been moved as soon as possible to rear areas. You are not going to bother with such things in a MASH. The paperwork wouldn’t be done and approved before they were moved.
A more modern example would be someone like my cousin. He was badly wounded in Afghanistan, sent to a CSH (modern equivalent of a MASH), as soon as possible sent to Landstuhl Germany and then on to Walter Reed. He was presented his Purple Heart by President Obama at Walter Reed on one of his visits.
That medal was manufactured in WWII in preparation for the invasion of Japan. They made 500,000 of them. Over 100,000 have yet to be awarded (and hopefully never will be).
I remember one episode where Burns presents a wounded soldier with a Purple Heart while the soldier is in a post-op bed. The soldier wasn’t particularly happy about it because, IIRC, it was his third one.
Thanks for the answer. The paperwork issue makes perfect sense.
But that still leaves my other question (perhaps not adequately asked): Wouldn’t every soldier going through a MASH qualify for a purple heart (excepting the self-inflicted ones, etc.)?
Obviously, because the show was set in the hospital/compound, we wouldn’t have found out about 99% of them, but I thought about putting this in GQ because I’m curious about the rest of the soldiers, fictional though they may be in the show, but they represent real soldiers.
I guess what I mean is, if it’s not clear, wouldn’t any and all soldiers wounded in combat qualify? If not, why not? It’s a big deal to be awarded one, and there are many soldiers wounded so why isn’t it more common?
(I didn’t serve, because I graduated h.s. in 1980, five years after Vietnam, and was more or less a pacifist, though I registered when I turned 18.)
In a recent thread that was refuted. I’m not sure of the correct answer. I do know that if you are awarded the Purple Heart and need an extra one for display or your other uniform all you have to do is go to the store or online and buy one since they are commercially available.
Much more than self-inflicted it would be more likely that a certain percentage of those needing medical help would be due to accidents and illness. Illness is always a worry while living under adverse conditions. Playing with dangerous toys while exhausted, stressed and in bad conditions will lead to accidents. Sometimes deadly. But anyone combat wounded should be eligible for a Purple Heart.
That’s a little hard to articulate. Is it a big deal to be awarded one? Yes, it’s an acknowledgement of your sacrifice. But it doesn’t take any particular skill or even bravery. You zigged when you should have zagged. The guy next to you gets a purple heart for getting hit with shrapnel and you don’t because of luck. It’s an award that you hope to never get but it would be a real kick in the ass to get wounded and not be acknowledged.
As for being common, how common do you want it? More than 1 million awarded in WW2. 100k in Korea. 350k in Viet Nam. That’s more common than most of the awardees would want.
This makes a lot of sense. I had not thought about it before, but I’m betting there were a lot of things at the 4077th that were done for television and didn’t reflect reality.
IIRC, that wasn’t so much refuted as it was confused. The military thought they were running out, commissioned new production, then found a warehouse full of them.
[QUOTE=Leo Krupe]
I guess what I mean is, if it’s not clear, wouldn’t any and all soldiers wounded in combat qualify? If not, why not?
[/QUOTE]
Again, yes, they would. Are you finished asking the same question?
[QUOTE=Leo Krupe]
It’s a big deal to be awarded one, and there are many soldiers wounded so why isn’t it more common?
[/QUOTE]
Um… you’re thinking about the non-posthumous ones, right?
Look, as more soldiers are awarded the PH, it DOES become more common and less of a big deal. That is how “commonality” works. So when you’re in a front line unit and get one, when you heal up and go back, it’s sometimes a “Okay, now you’re like the rest of us. Now grab your shovel and help us fill sandbags.” sort of thing.
And depending on the Command, one can receive a PH for a wound that, well, it seems a stretch to even mention. Look, one gets the same PH for losing a limb in combat than you get for a bullet graze that requires a spray of bactine and a bandaid. 2 of my Purple Hearts were more due to the over-imaginative writing of a Regimental Awards & Citations Officer with a B.A. in English who was warming up to write “The Great War Novel” than anything I actually did. As for the other 2, I was more interested in getting a bowl of vanilla ice cream or getting a nurse or medic to bring me a piss bottle than some COL or BGEN pinning it to my PJs.
As for your “Big Deal” about them, we’d say “With a Purple Heart and 1 dollar, you can get a Happy Meal at McDonald’s”. Of course, now, it takes $2.79. A PH is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but most guys would be just as happy to never have qualified for any.
I just did some quick searches. Many old medals were refurbished. New ones were ordered. There is a lot of murkiness here. But someone awarded the medal for action in Afghanistan may have a new one.
I’m sure my cousin would have preferred not getting the Purple Heart even though he was awarded by the president since he died of his wounds five days later. I’m sure his wife appreciated the the medal but would rather have him. Except for a current presidential candidate no one wants a Purple Heart.
Let me quote just part of the regulation (DA 600-22-8) from the update last year (which included clarifications to the Purple Heart which obviously weren’t in force during Korea)
It’s actually clearer than some regulations I wrestled with.
One example I dealt with personally. One of my troops, in his immediately previous unit, had deployed to Iraq, gotten his gun truck blown up while on convoy escort and took a blow to the jaw/neck while bouncing around from the explosion. On the face of it not a Purple Heart since a little bruising and swelling wasn’t enough. A couple days later he suddenly needed to be evacuated to Germany to have a salivary gland surgically removed from the area of the blow. That looked like he might have actually qualified since he needed surgery to remove a body part as a result of the injury. He hadn’t been awarded a Purple Heart. My unit started a review. Nothing in his medical documentation made a direct link between the physical injury and the damage requiring surgical removal though. If I’d been in his chain of command while deployed we might have been able to jump through the hoops to get medical to at least state an opinion on whether there was a connection between the blow and the surgery. Or we might have missed the connection since we were really busy like his unit was. A year and a half later in CONUS with no evidence that it wasn’t just coincidence… he still didn’t get a PH. I simply didn’t have a solid justification to even forward a recommendation.
My father claimed, in all seriousness, that he deserved a Purple Heart, because while running for the barracks in response to a raid siren, he tripped over a decorative fence.
Then again, though, he also claimed that Kerry didn’t deserve any of his.
The majority did, however commanders like to hand them out rather than just being handed out by the company clerk at the MASH. It is a big deal. Also a person needs to be wounded in combat by enemy action rather than just being wounded in a combat zone. So if you’re in a battle and one of your buddies misses and accidently hits you, it wouldn’t qualify.
