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Army veteran forced to pay $21 C.O.D. for own Purple Heart medal
By Jeff MillsAugust 8th, 2011, 6:30 pmComments (10)
Rob Dickerson, a retired Sgt. Major who served twenty-nine years in the U.S. Army, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was severely wounded in Iraq in 2007 while serving as a reservist advisor to Iraqi soldiers. A rocket had exploded in Dickerson's vicinity, causing him numerous injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, and all the Iraqi soldiers with him at the time were killed.
As a soldier wounded while in action, Dickerson had a richly deserved Purple Heart medal coming to him, the protocol of which entails a U.S. medic issuing the injured soldier a Casualty Feeder Card, which passes up the chain of command, notifying them of American casualties. In Dickerson's case, no American medic was present, so he ended up spending two years pursuing his medal, which he was finally granted in 2009. And this is where the story gets shameful and disgusting.
Sgt. Major Dickerson's Purple Heart was shipped to his home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in August of 2009, with no ceremony, and a shipping invoice for about twenty-one dollars handed to him by a FedEx deliveryman. In an email, Army spokesman Troy Rolan said, "The normal practice is to send the award to the soldiers [sic] unit...It would be up to the unit or Congressional office to coordinate a ceremony. Unknown why the soldier was charged postage for shipping."
Dickerson initially refused to pay the C.O.D., and rightfully so. He was re-billed a week later, paid it, then informed Army officials of the snafu. The Army sent an apology, and a money order in the way of reimbursement. But get this, another two years have passed, and Dickerson has been unable to cash the money order because it's made out to Roy Dirksen!
One might laugh at such a comedy of errors if it wasn't so damned pathetic. I'm very proud of, and grateful to, all the men and women of the armed forces who have served and defended our country in the past, and continue to do so in the present. And that can never be a cliche. Dickerson said, "When I was a Sgt. Major, I double-checked and triple-checked everything. Mistakes happen. This happened — so resolve it."
Commentarium (10 Comments)
wow. what bullshit
I'll pay.
The military is the best run department of the government and this crap still occurs. God save us when the government takes over healthcare.
Disgrace. I hope they have a parade for him.
@Patriot:
The military is the "best run department"? Maybe department with the most courageous employees. Department whose members are most self-sacrificial and central to our national defense and continued existence as a country. All of those sure.
But best run? Organizationally? Not by a long shot. Hundreds of years of bureaucratic legacy going on. I mean, granted, I'm hard put to think of a government agency which isn't mired in inefficiency and greedy incompetent contractors. But if were an efficiency contest, none of military departments would come out on top.
All that bacon republican lawmakers brag about bringing home for defense? Most of that gets sunk into things just like $50 an hour IT guys, form fillers, and related desk jockeys and $70 an hour middle managers at Lockheed, while stuff like ground operations budgets, PTSD programs or jobs training programs, and other transitional programs go underfunded.
I'm not even joking about those numbers by the way, they're probably even higher than that when you factor in benefits. And they don't buy us "the best in the industry" that's what some of them are the first couple years and after that they become "the most complacent and well fed in the industry."
I remember reading a while back in DC City Paper something like "the median income of a rider of the metro" (note not average, MEDIAN, which means if you took all the riders put them in a line by income, and counted down till you got the guy in the middle, and all the guys after him would make more than that) "is $120,000." Not kidding you. More than half the people who take the subway in DC make $120k+ a year. Isn't that fucked up? While this guy has to pay $21 for his purple heart?
It's true some of them are lobbyists and thinktank lugs I'm sure, but you bet your ass most of them just have sugary contractor jobs being paid out of our debt, and billing our economic crisis. The problem is, just cutting cutting cutting funding is not going to take these guys away.
Which department is better run, Claret?
BTW, $70/hr for a middle manager? You must be kidding. It's easily double that.
Am I alone in feeling he should just pay the $21. Sure the Army should have given him one for free. But sulking for years at a $21 mistake is just making drama.
Also once you are authorized to wear a medal, you can either pick one up at the nearest PX or order one online. People in service get slightly broken or delayed medals all the time, you either file 20 different forms for months or just pay $10 at the base PX.
Claret is absolutely correct. But Patriot has it right too, that healthcare will be infinitely worse. There's too much money involved for it to be any other way. Just wait and see...
Thanks, MRAGH. How the h!@# do you pronounce that anyway?
mmmMRAAAAAGHHHHHHH!
Maybe you goddam Americans should stop making war in everyone else's f'n country.