The dozer had been working the clearing all morning. The low-boy had dropped it and the operator off early and left, the backhoe had followed along and together they had spent the whole morning expanding and leveling and smoothing out the clearing. They were wary but although they were definately in injun country, there hadn't been any VC activity in the area in some time. At about noon, they both came under heavy small arms fire. The backhoe operator was hit right away but the dozer was on the other side of the clearing and the VC were not very good shots at that distance, at least THESE VC weren't.

The dozer guy saw his buddy collapse on his hoe before he actually was aware of enemy fire. Then some rounds came his way and started pinging off his machine. His reaction was swift, he raised the blade high enough to hide behind, a D-8 has a very thick blade, but not so high he couldn't see where he was going. He went directly across the clearing to the backhoe. The VC kept firing at him but they weren't about to expose themselves to that dozer blade. The dozer operator pulled up next to the hoe, jumped out of his cab, dragged the wounded hoe operator off of his machine and got a shoulder under him and climbed back up on the dozer, then he backed away from the shooters all the way out to the road. He kept backing down the road away from the VC fire until he came across some other engineers who helped him out. Somehow, in the process of this action, the dozer operator received a couple of minor wounds. He was treated and a dust off was called in for him and the hoe guy. Unfortunately, the hoe guy died before the chopper arrived.

The dozer operator, a Spec4 from combat engineers, was put in for a bronze star with V device for Valour. When the award recommendation was processed at USARV HQ, it was downgraded to an Army Commendation Medal. The justification was this: He didn't actually save anybody's life, the hoe guy died of his wounds...and he never actually engaged the enemy, he drove around in the clearing toward the enemy to rescue the other guy, but he didn't fire his rifle even once. So he got his Purple Heart and his ARCOM and the warm fuzzy feeling that his best interests were being watched out for by a pimply-faced, snot-nosed, REMF 2LT in G-1 at USARV (U S Army, Vietnam) who, after downgrading the specialist's award, walked over to the airconditioned officer's club, had a steak and a cold beer and shared a laugh or two with like-minded LTs who wore spit-shined jump boots (them hooch gals knew how to shine a boot) to work, never carried a weapon to work, rarely left the compound, and felt full of themselves as they worked hard to maintain the integrity of the award system. Can't make them baubles too easy or everyone would have one ! Of course...guess who went home wearing those Bronze Stars?

This true story brought to you courtesy of Ock's rant on RHIP, as a further illustration that the WPPA is alive and well.

Is this too outdated for you? Think things have changed? Well, twenty years or so later, there I was...reading the Stars and Stripes in Stuttgart Germany...story about a young Spec4 who stopped along the autobahn and assisted a German motorist who had managed to tip his Mercedes over into a ditch and catch it on fire. The young soldier ignored the fire, crawled into the ditch to reach the driver's door, cut the safety belt and helped the German out of the wreck just in time. He was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, the lowest achievement award the Army had at the time. Just a few months later, a young Lieutenant stopped and assisted a German motorist who had managed to run off the road, smack a tree and bend up some body work...the car's, not hers. No fire, no immenent danger, no roll over, he didn't even have to crawl to reach the driver's door. For this minimal effort (which I am POSiTIVE was inspired by the news coverage of the Spec4's heroic efforts), the LT was awarded the Soldier's Medal, the highest peacetime award available at the time.

Later still. At the end of the Gulf War in '91, we sat in the desert awaiting transport back to Germany and filled the time writing awards for each other. I happened to be at our Battalion HQ when they received the directive that no First Sergeants were to receive a Bronze Star (this is for us REMF 1SGs, I am sure the shooters got their share), because if the commander got one, it would detract from his if his First Sergeant got one, too. If the commander DIDN'T get one, well...then no way the First Sergeant can get one. This, of course, only affected a Base Bronze Star which is awarded for achievement...not the BS with V Device (for Valour).

Nowadays? Don't know. But judging by Ock's tone, and from conversations with HBW and other active duty kids I meet around here in the Swirling Epicenter...things aren't any different.

I am not bitter, any more...I got my share of "fruit salad" on my shirt...but it does illustrate that there is a difference and it goes beyond the parking lot.

And to be "fair" to the originator of the title: in the movie "The Devil and Max Devlin", Elliot Gould as Max was complaining to Bill Cosby, the Devil, that things in Hell weren't fair.  The Devil's response is the title of this piece.