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Yes there is embellishment in some awards... I have seen Valor awards given for rediculous things like, shooting a tank with an M16, Assaulting an empty building, and Shooting at your own Marine's positions. I have also seen fine men do amazing things that should have merited an award, but they recieved little or no recognition, because of fk-ups later in the tour, or the awards "quotas" were used up.
These are the extremes to be sure, and the majority of awards fall in line where they should, but when you are talking about the MOH, there are way too many eyes and scruitiny in the process to really allow much fluff.
Dakota deserves his medal, enough said. I know the guys that were there, I know how the decisions were made, I know how disjointed debriefings can get after a big action like that, and I know how hard it is sometimes to capture so many events into the limited space allowed for each particular award citation.
Bottom line: Some PAO's don't seem to know when they are out of their lane.
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“Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.” ~ General Mattis
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