The Baltimore Sun has an interesting article on the front page today about how 350 stories of military heroism written in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past six years are not available to the public.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/...
In the past six years, 350 Silver Stars for heroism have been given to members of the Army and the Marines. Would you like to know how those men and women earned their stars? Well, you can't.
The Baltimore Sun has been investigating this issue for over a year. Given that this adminstration is notoriously secret, I guess we shouldn't be surprised. When a Silver Star is granted, a one to two page narrative is filed but despite the fact that only a few of these narratives have been given a classified designation, you can't read any of them.
The Army denied a March 2006 Freedom of Information Act request for the narratives, first on the grounds that it couldn't find all of them.
Next, Army lawyers argued that releasing the narratives "could subject the soldier and family to increased personal risk." But the Army and the Defense Department already publicize the names, photos and hometowns of medal recipients.
The lawyers also argued that disclosure would discourage officers in the future from writing detailed battle accounts.
The Sun appealed the Army's decision to withhold the narratives in December 2006, and is still awaiting a decision.
After being prodded for more than a year, the Army acknowledged last week that there is no law or regulation that blocks release of the narratives.
The Army had argued that a Defense Department directive specifically prohibited the release. But the Pentagon directive on medals and awards makes no mention of narratives, and the Army's assertion was hotly denied by a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck. "No DoD policy prohibits the release of award narratives," he insisted.
Even so, Army lawyers are conferring with the Pentagon's general counsel, seeking a balance between privacy and public disclosure, officers said.
Meanwhile, the narratives remain off-limits to the public.
Is there anything more to this than the DoD trying to protect the privacy of its soldiers? No one will know until they release these narratives.