
The Curious Case of Chris Kyle’s DD-214 - smacktoward
http://jasonlefkowitz.net/2016/06/curious-case-american-sniper-chris-kyles-dd-214/
======
MrZongle2
I suspect the discrepancy regarding Kyle's awards is really only of interest
to two groups of people: the ones who served with him, and the ones who
dislike him (or the military in general) and relish the notion of his
reputation being tarnished.

I'm a veteran, and I have a problem with people who claim military decorations
they didn't earn. I think the term "stolen valor" is needlessly dramatic, but
the act itself is contemptible.

I temper this with the knowledge, however, that there is sometimes a
discrepancy between the branches of service and even within units in a single
service when it comes to giving out awards...especially those that only
tangentially involve combat. Many who deserved to be decorated have not; many
more who did little have much to show for it.

I don't know where Chris Kyle stands with me, exactly.

If he had simply served as a SEAL in combat, that would still be impressive.
Being awarded the Silver Star is noteworthy by itself. Being awarded three
Bronze Stars for valor isn't shabby by any stretch.

If he intentionally deceived people about the other decorations, that
certainly is a blemish on his character but still strikes me as silly as
thinking less about Michael Collins because he "only" circled the moon in
Apollo 11 rather than landed on it with Armstrong and Aldrin.

This is much ado about (almost) nothing. Especially as the man himself is
dead, and will neither benefit from or be punished for any possible misdeed at
this point.

------
chimpchange
This guy should have been around for Viet Nam - he could have stood in line
with the "progressives" to spit on the returning soldiers.

There has been a lot of ink spilled on this subject and there is no evidence
of intentional overstatement of medals or stolen valor or anything else this
clown is asserting. At most, it's an error and no more. These claims are
coming from the left, progressives, and anti-war retreads from the
counterculture.

I'm sure that Kyle was not a perfect man. I'm also sure he's an American hero
and deserves considerably more respect than he's being given by the "let's
rewrite history to suit ourselves" precincts of American civilian culture.

------
Nrsolis
What a total crap article with zero actual content.

------
genericpseudo
Honestly, 1+3 -> 2+6? Looks like double-counting.

~~~
kaonashi
Possible that the difference in the official form conflicted with his own
PTSD-affected memory, thus the 5 instead of the 'official' 6.

You'd have to know the timeline of claims for that, though.

