Shitstorm Growing: Murtha Awarded Marine Corps’ Highest Civilian Honor
Related: Petition to revoke award
In one of his last moves before leaving office March 13, then-Navy Secretary Donald Winter quietly awarded 19-term Democratic congressman John Murtha (Pa.) with the service’s highest civilian honor.
Citing Murtha’s “courageous leadership, vision, and loyalty to the men and women of the Department of the Navy,” Winter presented the influential chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel with the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, an honor bestowed in “those extraordinary cases where individuals have demonstrated exceptionally outstanding service of substantial and long term benefit to the Navy, Marine Corps, or the Department of the Navy as a whole,” a Murtha release stated.
The award generated little publicity when it was given to Murtha in early March, but as news of the honor trickled out, some veterans groups ignited a firestorm of protest.
Poll: Should the Navy reconsider Murtha’s award
The primary reason for their ire stems from the congressman’s statements in May, 2006, that a squad of Marines who responded to an IED ambush and short firefight in Haditha, Iraq, rampaged through the village, murdering civilians “in cold blood.”
Murtha made those comments in the heat of the 2006 congressional mid-term election campaign, in a move some political analysts saw as an attempt to stoke the anti-war vote for a Democratic takeover of the House. The former Marine and distinguished Vietnam veteran continued his accusations in follow-up media appearances before an official Pentagon and Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation had been completed.
When the dust settled more than two years later, six of the eight Marines and Sailors accused of crimes in the Haditha incident had their cases dismissed, one was found not guilty and the last has been continued indefinitely.
The Navy did not respond to a request for comment on the award or the backlash from veterans groups by post time.
Murtha has refused to recant his accusations or apologize to the Marines he accused of war crimes. When asked by Military.com in late 2007 whether he regretted his initial statements and owed the exonerated Marines and Sailor an apology, Murtha refused to comment, saying the cases were still being adjudicated.
Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey did not respond to a request from Military.com for a comment on the award, or the controversy surrounding it among some vet groups.
In a release shortly after the award, Murtha gushed over the prestigious honor.
“I’m proud of the service and sacrifices our troops are making, and I’m honored to receive this distinguished award from the Navy,” commented Murtha. “We have an obligation to ensure that our men and women in uniform have the most modern equipment, effective training, first-class medical care, and family advocacy resources.”
But one influential veterans group has reacted strongly against the award, crafting a petition to lobby the Navy to rescind it.
Vets for Freedom, a group that generally supports the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, called Murtha’s award “appalling” and his accusations against the Haditha Marines “vile and despicable.”
“Congressman John Murtha should apologize for slandering the Marines of [3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment], and for undermining the efforts of those servicemen and women who fought in Iraq,” the online petition states. “If he does not, the Secretary of the Navy should rescind this award as a sign of his unwavering support for those who served in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
So far more than 35,000 supporters have signed the online petition.
“It shows a lack of foresight from the Navy to not understand the long term effect of making Marines look like war criminals,” said Vets for Freedom president Pete Hegseth, whose organization embraced the petition effort started by VFF Senior Fellow and former Marine Iraq vet Gabe Ledeen.
“I’d be surprised if the Navy stepped back and rescinded the award,” Hegseth told Military.com. “But there’s a chance they could conduct an internal review to see how it was awarded and why.”
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Talk about throwing dirt in the face of the men and women who serve. Donald Winter should hide his face in shame for the rest of his miserable life. Only a jackass would give another jackass such a totally undeserved honor such as this. The value of the meaning of that medal just when to about the same value as an Obama promise. diddlely-squat.
Agreed! Murtha isn’t worthy to even be called a former Marine.
I can think of no lower thing than the undeserving stealing the laurels of true heroes.
Navy Secretary Donald Winter is a pandering whore, or he has his head so far up his own ass his reality is defined by an advisor who is a pandering whore.
I suspect the reason that fucking treasonous backstabbing disgrace was given this was based on using taxpayer money for some pet project that winter had a hard on for or simply the navy secretary was paid off with a bribe.
the only redemption for murtha would be for him to apologize for his sorry ass on the steps of the capital and then to kill himself before the nations cameras.
Murtha should be hanged from the nearest lamp post. That fat ass coward has no business being a senator.
Why ruin a perfectly good lamp post? I think imprisonment is just fine…for life.
Hey, the Army gave a pretty high honor to Benadict Arnold,…but wait, that was BEFORE we knew what a lying traitorous shitball he was!
He has YET to apologize to the Haditha Marines.
Isn’t that kinda like giving Osama Bin Ladden the Nobel Peace Prize? Just when you think shit couldn’t get any crazier, it does…………
:evil
I think what Murtha did was despicable, but one thing that came about as a result of that, was we all got a look at some of our nation’s finest, that we perhaps wouldn’t have seen or heard from. One person I saw interviewed was Marine Staff Sgt.
Frank D. Wuterich, and I can only say that, we as a nation, are very fortunate to have people like him! I came across what appears to be his web-site at:
http://www.frankwuterich.com/
The award was bestowed upon this worthless piece of shit after the FBI raided the factory in western Pa. and news came out that Murtha was involved in the investigation of kickbacks, political donations and outright corruption. Do these fuckin’ idiots in Washington have any idea what a shitstorm they are creating and what’s going to happen in this country in pretty short order?
The idiots in DC are so drunk with power that they think they are untouchable. And the people who give them that feeling are the other idiots who vote for them. Time for a new party…The Patriot Party…liberals and RINOs need not apply. We are fiscally conservative and socially conservative. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Left is also wrong…no offense to southpaws.
Winter came out of the Military-Industrial complex where he was dependent on slimeballs like Murtha to feed him projects. Winter also undermined the entire Haditha prosecutions by issuing career-ending “Letters of Reprimand” to Lt. Col. Chessani’s chain of command. He is a snake, barely above Murtha, and should swing with him from the same yardarm!
The Navy has a special award which it gives assholes in special circumstances. This award is most commonly known as keelhauling. In this case, it should be administered from bow to stern of one of our carriers crossing the North Atlantic at 30 knots.
Murtha deserves Hell…not a honor award. I’m definitely signing this petition.
I also think murtha is lower than whale crap.
He is a bloated, gin soaked, egomaniac who (despite some service - a la John ‘photo op’ Kerry - that service isn’t out of honor, rather it stems from ticket punching and resume padding.
Anyone remember ABSCAM?
I feel sorry for the few from his district that are decent people. They must be sick to their stomachs.
I know one of the Marines fathers is sueing him. I hope the verdict makes the Goldberg/Simpson verdict look like a parking ticket - nothing would make me happier to see him in a soup line…
We live in a parallel universe….. where up is down….. where wrong is right….. if we can’t turn this around in Nov 2010, then we are doomed. Stay locked and loaded.