Combat Cameraman Earns Silver Star

[bmattock]

And you thought your day was tough?

http://www.military.com/news/articl...tar-in-afghan-ambush.html?ESRC=topstories.RSS

GI Reporter Earned Silver Star in Afghan Ambush
November 16, 2009
...
"My bag got shot," Carter says. "It ripped through my camera and batteries and my Camelbak. I felt the Camelbak water running down my back. I thought I'd been shot. ... I was so pumped through with adrenaline. I thought, 'You gotta be kiddin' me.' "
...
As it turns out, the cameraman never used his camera that day. It now sits in a museum in Fort Meade, Md.

 

[wlewisiii]

Thank you for that link, Bill.

William

 

[Gumby]

Bronze-Star winner

These kinds of military awards are very special distinctions and the recipients are very special people, but "winner" is not the best term to use: the recipients are 'awardees'.

I work with closely a young Bronze Star awardee and his overwhelming feeling is that he is lucky to still be alive. He is a very special person with a very special perspective on both life and military conflict. Unfortunately, he shows significant physical and mental scars as a result of his actions in combat... so "winner" is definitely an inappropriate characterization.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Thank you for that link, Bill.

William

Seconded. Good bit of writing, too.

There's an old British military expression when you're being shot at, etc., which is, "If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined."

I take it that American military humour is similar? Here is a man who clearly can take that sort of 'joke'. I admire and salute him.

Cheers,

R.

 

[newspaperguy]

FWIW, I think you should say he earned it.

Roger: Right on... although I think I recall an 'F' word in there.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

These kinds of military awards are very special distinctions and the recipients are very special people, but "winner" is not the best term to use: the recipients are 'awardees'.

I work with closely a young Bronze Star awardee and his overwhelming feeling is that he is lucky to still be alive. He is a very special person with a very special perspective on both life and military conflict. Unfortunately, he shows significant physical and mental scars as a result of his actions in combat... so "winner" is definitely an inappropriate characterization.

I am really sick and tired of the nit-picking over choices of words used in common every-day language on this forum. I think most people know what I mean when using the word "win" without anyone getting up on a soapbox and giving a lecture. Now, I'll get off the Soapbox. My Father went 25 years without claiming his Medals from WW-II. We Kids asked him to send in for them. As far as I am concerned, He won them. And after getting shot down several times, we all knew he was lucky to be alive.

 

[oftheherd]

I am really sick and tired of the nit-picking over choices of words used in common every-day language on this forum. I think most people know what I mean when using the word "win" without anyone getting up on a soapbox and giving a lecture. Now, I'll get off the Soapbox. My Father went 25 years without claiming his Medals from WW-II. We Kids asked him to send in for them. As far as I am concerned, He won them. And after getting shot down several times, we all knew he was lucky to be alive.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I feel no problem with saying someone won an award for valor. It isn't an uncommon usage. We certainly often used that expression when I was in the US Army. We used that, as well as saying someone was awarded a medal, or earned a medal.

The bottom line is that saying someone won a bronze star or a silver star isn't derogatory in any way. So I guess we are left with several ways of saying something, none of which are really wrong. Pick your preferred expression, use that, and don't be offended by another usage that isn't derogatory.

Just for what it is worth.

EDIT: Gumby, a normal way of expression is that a person was a Bronze Star recipient, we wouldn't usually say an awardee. Doesn't mean anything though.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

From Webster's

Win
1) To get by effort, labor, struggle, etc.

The use seems appropriate here, under these circumstances.

 

[kully]

Thanks for posting that - makes you think about those little news bleats which just say "three soldiers were wounded in an ambush".

The comments... bloody hell...

I watched a Mel Gibson film called "The Patriot" last week and this comment from 'Nimrod64' caught my eye:

Kudos to the specialist. But how did our troops
get themselves into a situation where they were
surrounded and outnumbered? Why were we being bested by a ragtag bunch of "insurgents". This
seems to be a microcosm of our adventure in A'stan.
Don't the generals and politicos running this war
in a'stan know how to win. With the quality of the
U.S. fighting man, we should be kickin ***, instead of getting our butts kicked. JMO.

Replace the mentions of the US with British and transpose to the US war of independence... Spooky.

(Not that I sympathise with the Taliban)

 

[TennesseJones]

Thanks for the link bmmattock. amazing story, really wonderful he got out safe and whole.

as to kully, i'm not sure 'the patriot' is the best way to receive the history of that period. it's famously perverse in it's use of events from other conflicts..

Thanks for posting that - makes you think about those little news bleats which just say "three soldiers were wounded in an ambush".

The comments... bloody hell...

I watched a Mel Gibson film called "The Patriot" last week and this comment from 'Nimrod64' caught my eye:



Replace the mentions of the US with British and transpose to the US war of independence... Spooky.

(Not that I sympathise with the Taliban)

 

[Paul T.]

Yes, great article, thanks for posting. And I think 'win' is a good, one-syllable word.

As for comments - you get extreme, laughably simplistic arguments on just about every news-based website, nether political extreme has a monopoly on them. Best not to read too many.

 

[Gumby]

EDIT: Gumby, a normal way of expression is that a person was a Bronze Star recipient,

Yes, one could say it that way too.

And if Brian Sweeny wants to use the expression "win", I'm fine with that. I had no idea that there would be such an exaggerated reaction to a comment made in the interest of conversational discussion. Live and learn, I suppose.