[Chief_Joe]

Actually, I'm just trying to bring to light the propaganda being put out by the feminists in the Pentagon and their accomplishes in the media. I'm not trying to belittle her achievements, but they hardly merit support for women in combat. There are thousands of male soldiers who have done and are doing more on a daily basis, yet they are not receiving such awards. Yeah, they a gave a couple of more out to some fellows in this unit because they couldn't even come close to justifying it for her without doing so.

[68skylark]

I know there are a lot of debates here about women in the military, and it brings out strong feelings.

To me, this thread is not the place to stir up those debates, and say things like "propaganda" and "no big deal." There are 26 enemy dead from this small squad -- let's just be happy about that for a moment, okay?

There will be plenty of other threads where freepers can make disparaging comments about women who serve in uniform.

[MilspecRob]

I'm not trying to belittle her achievements

Well IMHO you are. I find that despicable, have you had trouble with women all your life?

[exnavychick]

I'm not trying to belittle her achievements, but they hardly merit support for women in combat. There's nothing extraordinarily special about what she did to merit that award.

Well, maybe it's because I'm a chick, but I find that comment just a WEE bit belittling. Then again, I wasn't there, either. Perhaps the feminists really ARE running the show at the Pentagon, but that has zero to do with Sgt. Hester's actions. Especially in this war, where anyone anywhere could be attacked. Even if you had her tucked away in the supply battalion, you couldn't be certain of her safety.

And yes, there are "thousands of male soldiers who have done and are doing more on a daily basis". They ought to be recognized, too. But that is the nature of the beast. Oftentimes, exceptional performance is either overlooked or taken for granted for a great many servicemembers, male and female. It takes nothing away from them that she and her fellows received those awards (and I noticed how you belittled THEIR awards as well, implying they only got them to justify the award to Sgt. Hester...I think that's pretty insulting to all those soldiers.)