Two things:
For those living in the nether regions of the North Island, I see that our much decorated friend's chest features on page 1 and page 2 of the Dom Post this morning.
Sarge (and anyone else?)
A friend of mine was awarded a Purple Heart.
A US Army General came through the hospital (Bien Hoa?) and handed one to everybody in the ward. As his party left the ward there was brief but urgent conference in the doorway, during which it was presumably pointed out to the General that one of the patients was off-suite. Following this, a flunky walked back along the ward to Nick and asked for the medal back.
But he had one for a few minutes
I understand several NZ personnel were "awarded" Silver Stars by the US Army during the Vietnam war but the NZ Government didn't approve the awards. That must be a difficult letter to write gracefully...
Similarly there were awards made to NZ and Australian soldiers by the Vietnamese Government, many of these are not officially recognised.
It's all very complicated, even before we come across mental cases like our Dom Post friend.
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
Bookmarks