Former Marine Lieutenant Robert Muller, a Vietnam vet who was wounded in the the line of duty and is a wheelchair user, received a Purple Heart, and he thinks soldiers who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to their time in combat should be eligible for the Purple heart, too, CBS news reports.The Purple Heart is a medal traditionally only given for physical injuries, not psychological illnesses.
"We're not talking about an illness, we're talking about an injury," said Muller, who is head of a veteran's advocacy group. "If you go to war and you have psychic trauma, that's injury."
In May, Defense Secretary Robert Gates hinted at the possibility of awarding a Purple Heart to PTSD troops when he said it was "an interesting idea … clearly something that needs to be looked into."
Army Captain Luis Montalvan, who has PTSD and is now a graduate student at Columbia University, isn't in favor of the Purple Heart being given to those with PTSD.
"There's a distinction between engaging the enemy and those who suffer psychologically from incidents that may in fact have nothing to do with contact with the enemy," said Montalvan.
Montalvan does have a Purple Heart, for his physical injuries.
A Rand Corporation study says that of more than a million and a half U.S. military who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 300,000 have symptoms of PTSD.
