Quote Originally Posted by KFCarter View Post
Do these inappropriate displays on the part of decorated veterans of WWII truly warrant this type of blanket psychoanalysis?
Please note that I specifically did not refer to WWII veterans, the youngest of whom would be 72, the oldest of whom is just over 100, and with a median age of somewhere around 80. These gentlemen seem to have far more respect for the appropriate wearing of their medals than do your average 50-something "weary warriors" one occasionally encounters festooned in medals, gnoshing on a jumbo turkey leg, wandering aimlessly around the vendor tents at most Highland games.

Let me give you an example of the difference between respectfully wearing medals when appropriate, and those who show up at Highland games be-ribboned and be-medalled to the nines:

Recently I attended a dinner in Chicago hosted by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Virtually all of the 95 living recipients of the Medal of Honor were present (the oldest of whom is 100). At dinner they wore their medals in the most unaffected, self-effacing way you could imagine. The next morning, at breakfast, there they were, the nation's most honored soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, and not one of them was wearing his Medal of Honor.

Now contrast that with the fellow in line at the Burger King this morning, wearing his medals, on his way to the Richmond VA Highland games. If anybody has a self-esteem issue, it wasn't the gentlemen I dined with in Chicago.