One of the first things that jumped out at me is they omitted the awards that Vance would have gotten just for deploying into a warzone. This is supposedly Vance's DD-214: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25030454-resp-docs-1pgred-24-3265. In it you see what you would expect a Marine who did 4 years with an Iraq deployment would receive. Vance has never claimed, to my knowledge, that his Marine career was anything other than what it was. He never claimed that he was a super soldier. He never claimed that he did anything heroic. He did his duty and came home. The fact that the Dems are trying so hard to distort his record is a big, flashing neon sign that they want to take the attention off of Walz's performance.
Good eye, and thanks for the link! Here are the various awards Vance received in his service that
PCIntern's meme omitted:
> Iraq Campaign Medal
> Sea Service Deployment Ribbon
> Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
> National Defense Service Medal
> Letter of Appreciation (5th Awd)
> Meritorious Mast
> Certificate of Appreciation
> Rifle Expert Badge (2nd Awd)
> Pistol Expert Badge
IOW, despite the comparative (to Walz) brevity of his service, Vance had almost as many medals and awards as did Walz. Unsurprisingly, the meme
PCIntern posted lied by very substantial omission, and
PCIntern, equally unsurprisingly, lapped up the lie he wants to be true.
Doing a little interpretation-guessing (I was not in any armed service, so not speaking from experience):
Letter of Appreciation (5th Awd) probably means official recognition by a commanding officer for some particular act of service, 5 separate occasions/actions (in 4 years' service!).
Meritorious Mast probably means official recognition of some particular act of service by his unit commander(s).
Certificate of Appreciation means similar official recognition
Rifle Expert Badge (2nd Awd); Pistol Expert Badge Not having served and not being familiar with USMC norms, this could mean ordinary certification for use of those weapons, but that it was awarded twice for Rifle suggests more than the competence expected of every Marine.
I would be happy if someone who did serve, especially in the USMC, would give more accurate interpretations. And appreciative for that service, whether "trigger-puller" or logistics or ... .