The Patriot Post® · Six Purple Hearts for Chattanooga Attack

After the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service finished their investigation into the July attack at two Navy facilities in Chattanooga, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced the five service members who died and the one who was wounded will receive Purple Heart medals. “Their heroism and service to our nation will be remembered always,” Mabus said in the announcement Wednesday. The men who gave their lives for their country are: Marine Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist, Staff Sgt. David A. Wyatt, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan, Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith. Marine Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, who was wounded in the attack, will also receive the Purple Heart.

For political reasons, Barack Obama has avoided labeling attacks on military facilities in our homeland acts of terrorism — something to do with that story about al-Qaida on the run and the Islamic State being contained. He even waited five days after the Chattanooga attack to order the flags at half staff. Furthermore, fallen and wounded soldiers have previously been denied the honor and support that comes with the Purple Heart. It took five years for survivors of the 2009 Fort Hook attack to receive medals. In the case of Chattanooga, the FBI took its time — five months — to announce the attacker was inspired by propaganda created, in the words of FBI Director James Comey, by a “foreign terrorist organization.” Obama finally but offhandedly acknowledged these attacks were terrorism in his Oval Office speech last week. On the other hand, as Chattanooga’s daily newspaper The Times Free Press notes, the FBI waited two days before labeling the San Bernardino attack an act of terrorism. Clearly, the Obama narrative is falling apart.