And here it is not even quite six years.
[CBSNEWS] Army Secretary John McHugh has approved the awarding of the Purple Heart to the military victims of the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead, the Army announced Friday. The civilian counterpart of the Purple Heart award - the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom - will be conferred on the civilian victims of the shooting.
McHugh was freed to extend the awards after Congress recently broadened the guidelines specifying who is eligible to receive them. The Purple Heart can be awarded to military members who suffer combat injuries, including injuries suffered at the hands of a foreign terrorist organization. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, Congress redefined an attack by a "foreign terrorist organization" to include any attack in which the perpetrator was in communication with or inspired by foreign terrorist elements before the attack. The previous criteria required evidence that the perpetrator was acting at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization. |