From the Department of Defense:
The USS John P. Murtha honors the late U.S. representative and Marine who dedicated his life to serving his country. Murtha served a distinguished 37 years in the Marine Corps and received the Bronze Star with Combat “V,” two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for his service in the Vietnam War, retiring as a colonel in 1990.
In his public life, Murtha served the people of Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District from 1974 until his death in 2010. In his position as the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, he oversaw funding issues for the Department of Defense, including the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and the intelligence community.
This is the same Congressman John Murtha who was notoriously corrupt and who accused eight Marines in Haditha Iraq of being murderers. “They killed innocent civilians in cold blood. They actually went into the houses and killed women and children,” Murtha said at a Capitol Hill press conference in 2006. “But I will not excuse murder. And this is what happened. There’s no question in my mind about it.”
Since then, Six of the Marines have since been cleared or acquitted of all charges. Of the remaining two Marines whose charges remain unresolved, one wasn’t even present for the alleged crimes, and the other’s chief accuser was “not being truthful,” according to one Naval Criminal Investigative Service report.
Last year I spoke to Justin Sharratt, one of the Marines cleared of charges in the Haditha case and who happens to be a Murtha constituent. Sharratt even sued Murtha for slander over his remarks. The Navy had just announced it was giving Murtha its highest civilian honor: the Distinguished Public Service Award. (The award even cited Murtha’s “loyalty to the men and women of the Department of the Navy,” which oversees the Marine Corps.)
I asked him how he felt about Murtha’s award. “Well, it wasn’t the greatest feeling after everything I’ve seen him do,” Sharratt said dryly. I can only imagine how he feels now.
