Bonny, the medals awarded do mean something - one example is the Purple Heart. If someone has been awarded a Purple Heart, it means he or she has been wounded in the course of duty, and it has to be a combat-related injury. If you simply get frostbite sitting in a tent, you don't get a Purple Heart. If you get shot, hit by shrapnel, etc. you do. The real rules of course are more complicated than that, but that's the "gist" of that one.
I agree that people should be treated equally up to a point, but I do think losing a limb while in combat deserves more respect than shuffling papers in an office in Kansas, no matter how important those papers are.
All who serve deserve our thanks and respect. Some deserve more.
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