PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF: 

	BOARD DATE:           4 November 1998    
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AC98-09802

	I certify that hereinafter is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in the case of the above-named individual.  

	Mr. Loren G. Harrell		Director	
	Ms. Wanda L. Waller		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Mr. James E. Vick		Chairperson	
	Mr. Luther L. Santiful		Member	
	Mr. Thomas N. Kuhn		Member	

	The applicant and counsel if any, did not appear before the Board.

	The Board considered the following evidence:

	Exhibit A - Application for correction of military 
                records
	Exhibit B - Military Personnel Records (including
	            advisory opinion, if any)

FINDINGS:

1.  The applicant has exhausted or the Board has waived the requirement for exhaustion of all administrative remedies afforded by existing law or regulations.

2.  The applicant requests award of the Purple Heart.

3.  The applicant states he was wounded in combat on 6 June 1944.  In support of his application, he submits a copy of a notarized letter from a nurse who states she treated the applicant for head wounds on 6 June 1944 and a 1995 newspaper article which describes the reunion of the applicant and the nurse.

4.  The applicant’s military records were destroyed or lost during the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973.  Records available to the Board were obtained from alternate sources and show that the applicant was inducted on 
23 January 1943.  He served as a medical aid man in the European Theater of Operations from 2 November 1943 through 20 November 1945 and was separated with an honorable discharge on 8 December 1945.

5.  The applicant’s WD AGO Form 53-55 (Enlisted Record and Report of Separation), which the applicant did not authenticate in his own hand, does not show the Purple Heart as an authorized award.  

6.  DA Forms 1577 (Authorization for Issuance of Awards), dated 17 December 1984 and 28 January 1985, show the applicant was entitled to the Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal (based on award of the Combat Medical Badge), the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four bronze service stars and Bronze Arrowhead, and the Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp.  These awards are not shown on the applicant’s WD AGO Form 53-55.

7.  There is no evidence in the applicant’s records showing he was awarded the Purple Heart or was wounded as a result of hostile action.  Item 34 (Wounds Received in Action) of the applicant’s WD AGO Form 53-55 states “None”.

8.  The French Government cited the applicant’s unit with award of the Croix de Guerre with Palm Citation by Decision Number 758, dated 25 May 1945.

9.  Army Regulation 600-8-22 provides, in pertinent part, that the Purple Heart is awarded for a wound sustained as a result of hostile action.  Substantiating evidence must be provided to verify that the wound was the result of hostile action, the wound must have required treatment, and the medical treatment must have been made a matter of official record.

10.  In a 28 March 1983 letter, the U.S. Army Military Personnel Center published the policy regarding awards of the French Croix de Guerre to U.S. Army veterans who had served in World War I and World War II.  Essentially, this guidance states that there is no individual emblem presented to or worn by Army soldiers who were in a unit cited by the French Government for the Croix de Guerre.  Thus, former members of any American units which appear in Department of the Army Pamphlet 672-1 (Unit Citation and Campaign Credit Register) are not authorized an individual device. 

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  The Board finds the eyewitness statement and the newspaper article sufficient as a basis for award of the Purple Heart.  Therefore, the applicant is entitled to award of the Purple Heart for wounds sustained on 6 June 1944.

2.  The applicant was awarded the Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal (based on award of the Combat Medical Badge), the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four bronze service stars and the Bronze Arrowhead, the Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp and the Croix de Guerre with Palm Unit Citation.

3.  In view of the foregoing, the applicant’s records should be corrected as recommended below.

RECOMMENDATION:

That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing that the individual concerned was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal (based on award of the Combat Medical Badge), the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four bronze service stars and the Bronze Arrowhead, the Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp and the Croix de Guerre with Palm Unit Citation.  

BOARD VOTE:  

JEV_____  LLS_____  TNK____  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

		______________________
		        CHAIRPERSON