Medals should be taken with a pinch of salt. The main function is to raise morale. The military will always embellish the stories. Call it marketing.
Most medals are for arbitrary stuff such as long service, served at such n such place, blah blah. Meaningless really.
Then the ones that do count, the medals for valour, well for every guy who gets one there another 100 nameless guys who should also be getting one. So those medals are also meaningless but for different reasons. They aren't a reward for the recipient. They're a confidence boost for the masses.
So the bottom line is just respect what the guy did and don't split hairs about it. And ignore the jam stealers with inferiority complexes who search for negativity to tie to these veterans who got the nod.
This Sarge Dakota guy looks like a tough cookie
Me personally, the only trinket that I kept from those days is my beret with it's badge and my marksman badge. The rest went in the trash