Because she's a publicity hound? Because there are a lot of people who assign undue amounts of credibility to low-ranking personnel in the military? Everyone's got an opinion. But not all opinions are equally valid. Or supported by the facts.
Well, that doesn’t fit the facts. If she was really a publicity hound, then “hero” fits that much better than what she’s saying. If anything she’s *lessening* her publicity, much more than if she maintained the “hero status”. So, that doesn’t fit what I see happening here, with her “setting the record straight”.
As far as her credibility, for one thing she gets a higher mark for actually *discounting* the exagerrated story. That ends up *enhancing* her credibility. Then secondly, let’s say that I’m captured and then rescued — well, then that means that the one *most qualified* to say what happened to me — is — *me*. So, I have the most authoritative account of what happened to *me*.