Whole heartedly agree with everything you stated. I do not ever want to see this labeled at "workplace violence" like the administration did for the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009. The military victims all received purple hearts after Congress "changed the criteria for receiving the purple heart." It was six years after the fact. We owe it to them and their families to do it better.

So after some experience with this by way of my grandmother. She contacted the National Archives in St Louis, MO. All the branches of service will direct you there. She filled out all the paperwork to get several deceased family members service records. She recieved alot of records this way. She took it one step further by going to the records archives and went through all the records personally. She obtained a ton more to include ship logs and contact reports on battles. Tons of great information and history there. I have attached a link below. Good luck with your research.

https://www.archives.gov/st-louis

Thank You Gunny! I obtained My Father’s Military Medals and awards back in 1995. IHe was alive and provided written permission for me to act on His behalf. The issues with My Father were two fold. He was Army Air Corps during WWII and Air Force during Korea, so I was’dealing with both HQ’s! I have all forms for obtaining information from St Louis; however, due to a Fire there, numerous Military records were destroyed. I don’t have My Uncle’s DD 214 and no one in my family does. However, I do have copies of NY records. I have an entire page of His awards. As far as Ensign Watson, I have nothing other than His Name, so I am planning to Contact My Congressman and OIG and White House VA hotline. I also heard there was an Airman who died along with Ensign Watson. GySgt (Join to see)

Back in the 80s, I helped my father get his medals (WWII, 33rd Infantry Div, Pacific Theater). I contacted the National Military Records Center in St. Louis and was informed about the fire they had there, so we had to fill out forms reconstructing my father's time in the service (unit, CO, campaigns, etc) and send them back to the Center. They came back with a list of the medals my Dad rated, and we had to send that to Dept. of the Army to have the medals issued. In addition to the campaign medals and Good Conduct Medal, there was a Bronze Star Medal in there, which greatly surprised me. My Dad NEVER talked about his war experiences, but he said he couldn't remember doing anything that rated a Bronze Star. Later I discovered that in WWII, any soldier that was awarded a Combat Infantryman badge automatically rated the Bronze Star Medal. That just reinforced for me that the Bronze Star is as much a decoration for administrative excellence as it is a combat medal.