Group says PTSD doesn’t merit Purple Heart

[unhappycamper]

The veterans group for combat wounded troops whose mission is to preserve the integrity of the Purple Heart has come out against giving the award to troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.


Group says PTSD doesn’t merit Purple Heart
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The veterans group for combat wounded troops whose mission is to preserve the integrity of the Purple Heart has come out against giving the award to troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I don’t think people should get the Purple Heart for almost getting wounded," said Joe Palagyi, of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

PTSD does not merit the Purple Heart, according to an Army regulation that lays out the criteria for the award.

Recently, a military psychologist at Fort Bliss, Texas, told reporters during a roundtable that making troops with PTSD eligible for the Purple Heart could help destigmatize the disorder.

"These guys have paid at least a high — as high a price, some of them — as anybody with a traumatic brain injury, as anybody with shrapnel wound, and what it does is it says this is the wound that isn’t worthy, and I say it is," said John E. Fortunato.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54773

[Ian David]

1. How about a Purple Brain? n/t

[reformedrethug]

2. I have to agree

the Purple Heart is awarded for INJURIES sustained in combat. PTSD is not an injury, it is a mental health issue that can develope from even a severe car accident, tornado, or hurricane thus it cannot be considered a combat related injury.