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Saturday, August 6, 2011

Price of Purple Heart, blood and $21 COD fee

Rob Dickerson, Army Veteran, Forced To Pay $21 C.O.D. For Purple Heart Medal

Ben Muessig

Retired Sgt. Major Rob Dickerson says he had to pay $21 in shipping fees for his Purple Heart award, earned after he was wounded in Iraq in 2007.
War comes with an incalculable human cost. And apparently a shipping fee of about $21.

Retired Sgt. Major Rob Dickerson says that's the price he was forced to pay when his Purple Heart -- the medal issued to soldiers wounded in action -- arrived at his door, C.O.D.

Instead of being awarded the military honor in a formal ceremony, the vet with 29 years in the service was handed his award, and a shipping invoice, by a FedEx deliveryman outside his Sioux Falls, S.D., home.

"Leaders need to pay attention and take care of soldiers," Dickerson told The Huffington Post. "This is a gross injustice."

The shipping-and-handling fiasco was the last aggravation for Dickerson in his four-year quest to get the medal. His story was first reported by Keloland.com.

In 2007, he was a reservist embedded as an advisor to Iraqi soldiers. He was training troops to fight the insurgency, when a rocket exploded nearby and severely injured him.

"It threw me 20, 25 feet in the air -- it just crumpled me," said Dickerson, who said the blow inflicted a traumatic brain injury, shrapnel wounds, injuries to his right shoulder, lower back and neck and nerve damage in his hip.
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Army Veteran, Forced To Pay COD For Purple Heart Medal

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