If not, they should be.

Ag friend got the Purple Heart in Korea - he said " And I didn't even try " !

BigJim49: I've often said that the Purple Heart is the only medal one can get for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Trench55 said:

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BigJim49: I've often said that the Purple Heart is the only medal one can get for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Yeah, I remember a grizzled Marine gunny telling me long ago, "It takes no talent to get shot, anyone can do it."

When I was a kid, I remember asking my Dad what medals he was awarded in WWII. (He was fighter pilot who flew 75 missions in South Pacific.). He never said but only replied, "the only two worth having were the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart, and you didn't want either".

I would assume they would get the PH so long as there is documentation to verify their injuries. During my tours in Iraq, they handed on the PH like it was candy. A Soldier in my company received one for the "wound" that he received when an IED went off near the vehicle in which he was the gunner. His wound was a knick on the back of his neck that was so minor it didn't even require a band-aid. The medic put some ointment on it and that was the medical attention he received. It was my impression that commanders, at the battalion level and above, liked to pile up awards so that at the end of the deployment they could make claims about how many awards their soldiers had received in order to talk up how rough a deployment had been.

PanzerAggie06 said:

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I would assume they would get the PH so long as there is documentation to verify their injuries. During my tours in Iraq, they handed on the PH like it was candy. A Soldier in my company received one for the "wound" that he received when an IED went off near the vehicle in which he was the gunner. His wound was a knick on the back of his neck that was so minor it didn't even require a band-aid. The medic put some ointment on it and that was the medical attention he received. It was my impression that commanders, at the battalion level and above, liked to pile up awards so that at the end of the deployment they could make claims about how many awards their soldiers had received in order to talk up how rough a deployment had been.

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This was my experience as well in AFG. There was a pretty serious attack on our base in 2010, one of the guys in my unit claimed concussion symptoms from a VBIED blast that was not close to us at all. He was given a purple heart and laughed at by others who were there.