Vietnam Vet Senior Chief Engineman Gerald E. Patterson finally gets medals

If you tend to not believe a Vietnam Veteran is due at least respect because of the fake veterans out there, try to give them the benefit of doubt because they very well maybe someone long overdue awards they earned. It breaks my heart to post about people posing as Vietnam veterans, especially Vietnam veterans claiming to have medals they did not earn but stories like this delight me beyond words.

Local Vietnam vet honored for heroism 42 years later
Posted by Kailani Koenig-Muenster at July 23, 2009

Four decades later, he is finally being honored.

On Friday retired Senior Chief Engineman Gerald E. Patterson of Renton will receive two awards for his heroism while fighting in Vietnam 42 years ago. He will be given a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor and a Presidential Unit Citation at the Whidbey Island Navy base.

"He told me about this situation that he was promised a medal at the end of his tour of Vietnam and it never materialized," said Buchanan, who later told Patty Murray's office about Patterson's story.

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Local Vietnam vet honored for heroism 42 years later

Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario Jr. decorated and on trial

Thirty-three in his battalion were killed in the battle. The first, he said, was a man in his squad. Nazario later received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with a "V" for valor for combat and leadership in Fallujah.

Though Nazario was not physically injured, he was later found to have post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ex-Marine decries prosecution in civilian court
By CHELSEA J. CARTER – 1 hour ago

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — A former Marine sergeant facing the first federal civilian prosecution of a military member accused of a war crime says there is much more at stake than his claim of innocence on charges that he killed unarmed detainees in Fallujah, Iraq.

In the view of Jose Luis Nazario Jr., U.S. troops may begin to question whether they will be prosecuted by civilians for doing what their military superiors taught them to do in battle.

Nazario is the first military service member who has completed his duty to be brought to trial under a law that allows the government to prosecute defense contractors, military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes outside the United States.

"They train us, and they expect us to rely back on that training. Then when we use that training, they prosecute us for it?" Nazario said during an interview Saturday with The Associated Press.

"I didn't do anything wrong. I don't think I should be the first tried like this," said Nazario, whose trial begins Tuesday in Riverside, east of Los Angeles.

If Nazario, 28, is convicted of voluntary manslaughter, some predict damaging consequences on the battlefield.

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