Ruptured Duck=Purple Heart???

[Bob Norton]

No way. The purple heart has a cameo profile of George Washington on it,
not an eagle. The Ruptured Duck was a very small metal "device" that
featured an eagle. It was DEFINITELY the Dubya-Dubya 2 Honorable Discharge
device. Lt. Ted Lawson's B-25C Mitchell "Ruptured Duck" is the aircraft
that was mentioned here the other day, BTW.

Jeez. I would've thought that a bunch of Pynchon/GR fans would have had a
somewhat better grounding in "The Big One". Is it possible you're all
hereditary academics and had parents and grandparents that wangled
deferments? <g>.

>Two centing along with everyone else: the "ruptured duck" is the Purple 
>Heart, the award for soldiers injured in combat (or driving bulldozers 
>in Saudi Arabia).  The eagle on it supposedly looks kinda like a duck.
>