Norton petitions to award Time journalist wounded in Iraq
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is petitioning Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee to award a local journalist the Defense of Freedom Medal.
Michael Weisskopf, a reporter for Time Magazine who lives in the District, lost his hand in Iraq when he picked up a grenade and threw it from the Army Humvee in which he was traveling. He saved his own life and the lives of a photojournalist and two soldiers traveling with him.
The Defense of Freedom Medal is the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart.
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the 1st Armored Division sent an e-mail to Norton's office that said he was denying Weisskopf the award because he questioned whether Weisskopf acted heroically or for self-preservation.
Norton sent a letter to Brownlee asking him to intervene and award Weisskopf the medal, or provide an explanation of why his act was not worthy of the medal.
Norton previously succeeded in getting Brownlee's permission to have the journalist transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a hospital not usually open to civilians.
"I will need to know why the Army considers a response that brought great harm to Mr. Weisskopf and prevented harm to others to be expeditious rather than valorous," Norton said in her letter to Brownlee.
- EMILY CARONE
