2.  The applicant requests award of the Purple Heart for sustaining shrapnel wounds to his leg while in Korea.  He submits statements in support of his claim.

3.  The applicant’s military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973.  Information herein was obtained from alternate sources.

4.  A Morning Report entry for 8 July 1951 shows the applicant was reassigned out of the Heavy Mortar Company, 27th Infantry Regiment, Korea on that date.

5.  The former commander of the Heavy Mortar Company, who commanded the unit from the period July 1950 through the summer of 1951, states that on        20 May 1951, the company was engaged in combat operations against enemy forces north of the Han river.  The attack continued through the last ten days of May and advanced north over the 38th Parallel.  One evening during that period the company was hit with a heavy concentration of artillery and mortar incoming fire.  The applicant, along with several other soldiers, was wounded in the leg by shrapnel from the enemy barrage.  Since the jeep ambulance did not have enough room for the applicant, he and his driver took the applicant to a battalion aid station where his wounds were treated.  The applicant was then released and brought back to the company area by himself and his driver.

6.  The former executive officer and motor officer of the Heavy Mortar Company, 27th Infantry Regiment, verifies the commander’s account.  He also remembers that the Aid Station suffered casualties and that may have caused the oversight.

7.  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 by a medical officer, and the medical treatment must have been made a matter of official record.

8.  The statements of individuals are normally inadequate as the sole basis for an award of the Purple Heart because they do not fulfill the regulatory requirement that there be a record of medical treatment.  However, in this case, the supporting statements from his former company commander and executive officer are credible evidence that the applicant did in fact receive the wounds claimed and was treated by competent battlefield medical personnel.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  While service records are not available and the few medical documents available do not verify that the applicant received treatment for his wounds, the supporting statements by the applicant’s former commander and executive officer offer a credible verification of his battle injury and a plausible explanation of why medical documentation is not available.

2.  In view of the foregoing, the applicant is entitled to award of the Purple Heart.

RECOMMENDATION:

That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing that the individual is entitled to award of the Purple Heart.

BOARD VOTE:

                       GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

                       GRANT FORMAL HEARING

                       DENY APPLICATION

                                                                         
    CHAIRPERSON