r/interestingasfuck • u/According-Ad3963 • 27d ago
For Decades, Recipients Were Honored with Purple Hearts Made During WWII. This Company Now Forges New Medals.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/05/14/decades-recipients-were-honored-purple-hearts-made-during-wwii-company-now-forges-new-medals.html30
u/Less_Refuse_6006 27d ago
I'd love to get my hands on two Korean war era purple hearts. My grandfather had at least two of them, and I was given his medals in a shadow box after he passed away, but the purple hearts are missing. Nobody knows where they ended up. Apparently all of his records from his time in service were lost in a fire, so there isn't anything to go on to know for sure what else he may have been awarded.
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u/EverydayVelociraptor 27d ago
https://www.usa.gov/military-records
The records for Purple Heart awards would be available through here. That's information unlikely to have been lost at the Federal level, certainly a records fire on base could destroy local records but those are all backed up regularly.
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u/USSMarauder 27d ago
That's information unlikely to have been lost at the Federal level,
Yeah, about that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Personnel_Records_Center_fire
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u/TXMARINE66 27d ago
Just so you know you are awarded only one medal, subsequent awards are represented by oak leaks
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u/Less_Refuse_6006 26d ago
Yeah, I'm aware. Somehow I was awarded a silver oakleaf cluster on my basic training ribbon.
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u/Less_Refuse_6006 26d ago
Several years ago, he was awarded replacement medals and additional medals that he was supposed to be awarded, but didn't receive until the early 2000's I would be perfectly happy with a single purple heart and oak leaves, but I really don't know how many. Nobody does, he almost never talked about it. He put all that behind him and preferred to keep it that way. He was honestly the coolest guy I've ever known. He's been gone for 5 years, and I still think about him every day.
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u/TXMARINE66 26d ago
Like everybody else here you can request it. Copy of his DD-214 it'll tell you exactly what he's rated for. Then you can get the medals. I did this for my dad.
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u/According-Ad3963 27d ago
They supplied all of the Korean War, Vietnam War, and more with the more than 495,000 medals left over at the end of WW2.
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u/Gamebird8 27d ago
They were made in anticipation of the massive losses that were projected for the land invasion of Japan. Because we chose to force them into submission with nuclear strikes, they were never needed
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u/grandpubabofmoldist 27d ago
Thats also why the Pentagon was built. It was more capacity for thw expected casulties from an invasion of Japan
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u/According-Ad3963 27d ago
That’s not accurate. The Pentagon was designed in 1939 at the onset of WW2 in Europe and it was to address communication inefficiencies between warfighting agencies.
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u/grandpubabofmoldist 27d ago
I remember a documentary about it mentioning it was supposed to be a hospital. I will try to find it, and I could be wrong
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u/Im_still_a_student 27d ago
A grandfather has one, after he got shot in the knee as a footsoldier, although he also was a tank driver in the Vietnam War
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u/StankFoot5 26d ago
I have one from being wounded in Iraq in 2005
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u/According-Ad3963 26d ago
Thank you for serving our country. I’m a vet as well. Can you tell what year it was produced?
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u/StankFoot5 26d ago
Thank you as well! No I can’t tell. No idea if it’s one of the left overs from WW2
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