Slain service members deserve Army recognition

I read a story which said the Army is deciding if they are going to award Combat Awards to the soldiers hit by the deadly drone attack at the outpost known as Tower 22 in Jordan. The Army is unclear whether the soldiers killed and injured in the drone attack by an Iran-backed militia will be awarded combat accolades.

The service is still deciding whether the three reservists and up to 40 Army National Guard troops are eligible for Combat Badges and Purple Hearts.

Now the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, the victims and survivors were able to receive Purple Hearts after a more than five-year struggle over whether the awards were deserved.

The survivors fought the military to recognize the shooting by U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan as a terrorist attack (which would make them eligible for the Purple Heart and other combat related benefits.) But the DoD likened the attack to workplace violence. (I always considered this to be a case of fratricide.)

Advocates for the victims gained support from members of Congress, who succeeded in including legislation in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that broadened the definition of an attack by a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Yet, the Army now is mulling over if those three who were killed, and up to 40 wounded and injured on Jordanian soil, and not on American soil like those at Fort Hood of which the eligibility rules for The Purple Heart were revised in 2015.

This shouldn’t even be up for debate.

David R. Kumpula

Hoffman Estates