Friendly fire status denies Purple Heart to wounded soldier

Friendly fire status denies Purple Heart to wounded soldier
By MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Newspapers
January 05, 2007

WASHINGTON - Gunfire in Iraq shattered Army Spc. Chris Carlson's leg and left him with a limp and some shrapnel, but no Purple Heart.

The Army rebuilt Carlson's leg with titanium, but nearly four months after he was shot while guarding a convoy north of Baghdad, it still hasn't awarded the 25-year-old Modesto, Calif., resident the medal that's given to soldiers who are wounded in combat.

"I thought, 'That freakin' sucks,' " Carlson said in a telephone interview. "I was shot in Iraq, and it was definitely not training."

As of July 31, the Army had awarded 13,944 Purple Hearts to soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan. Carlson, however, was hit by friendly fire, and whether that renders him eligible for the Purple Heart can be a tricky question, a judgment call.

The rules require Purple Heart recipients to be wounded in combat or the equivalent. Noncombat injuries don't count. Since 1993, victims of friendly fire have been eligible if they were wounded "while directly engaged in armed conflict."

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