[jjmcgo]

What is the experience of people on this board who were awarded Purple Hearts? Did the military inform you that you were getting one or did you have to beg, like Kerry and Murtha?

[RVN Airplane Driver]

What is the experience of people on this board who were awarded Purple Hearts? Did the military inform you that you were getting one or did you have to beg, like Kerry and Murtha?

I don't have one....but the way they are awarded is that there is a write up at the unit of the individual and then signed by medical personnel...and then it is processed. Very strange that years after...one applies for a PH.

[kellynla]

"What is the experience of people on this board who were awarded Purple Hearts? Did the military inform you that you were getting one or did you have to beg, like Kerry and Murtha?"

I got hit the first week I was in Nam.

I didn't know that I had received a PH until a year later when I put on my dress greens.

Semper Fi,
Kelly

[R. Scott]

What is the experience of people on this board who were awarded Purple Hearts? Did the military inform you that you were getting one or did you have to beg, like Kerry and Murtha?

I was wounded in April 1968. I honestly didn’t think of a Purple Heart – to many other things on my mind. I was first notified when it was presented to me sometime in late 1969 in Okinawa.

[wingman1]

I don't have a PH.

When a person arrived at his unit, he filled out some paperwork. One document was a release form that permitted the Army to publish, in your hometown newspaper, information pertaining to decorations or awards. The PH was probably not included - as some would consider a wound as sensitive and deserving of privacy. I'm not very sure anyway.

The best I recall is that a medic could put a person in for a PH, as well as the Battalion surgeon. The recipient would probably be made aware of this decision immediately.

Some may not realize that alot of these records are available in the National Archives.

A friend was looking up orders for a buddy of mine who had lost his citation for a Bronze Star with V device, and found a medical report about me for a non combat wound I received.
So it's likely that a medical report can be found in the Archives detailing the extent of Murtha's wounds.

[Mr. Silverback]

I have not received a PH (or even served in combat) but I know one guy who refused a PH. He was put in for it by his CO, and when he found out about it he asked him to rescind it. He had taken a small piece of shrapnel (which is still in his arm) during a firefight, and he felt it was not deserving of a medal. Then there's the case of Max Cleland, who was given a PH because his higher-ups considered it the right thing to do for a man so profoundly wounded, even though he was clearly not a victim of enemy action.

So basically, I find it suspicious any time I hear of someone working their chain of command to get a PH.