Purple Hearts were handed out in an attempt to improve morale. When I was there we had a mess sargeant win a purple heart for "shell fragments in left eye". He got an egg shell fragment under his eye lid while preparing breakfast in the enlisted mens mess at Can Tho, an Army Air Base 90 miles south of Saigon!.
Purple Hearts were handed out in an attempt to improve morale. When I was there we had a mess sargeant win a purple heart for "shell fragments in left eye". He got an egg shell fragment under his eye lid while preparing breakfast in the enlisted mens mess at Can Tho, an Army Air Base 90 miles south of Saigon!. Not too shabby. I had one former First Sergeant who loved telling us the story of how he'd gotten his Purple Heart after diving into a ditch, getting cut on a broken beer bottle, and receiving treatment for his resulting wounds, which did require stitches and a tetanus shot.
He made no claims to heroism or valour, but noted it was a handy attaboy for promotion boards and for retention during times of RIFS. Of course if you nosed a little deeper, you might find out that he got that PH way back when he was a corporal, on December 7th, 1941, at Schofield Barracks near Pearl Harbor....
