2.  The applicant requests award of the Purple Heart for wounds received on the day he was captured.  He submits documentation 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.  The applicant was inducted on 21 March 1944.  He arrived in the European Theater of Operations on 25 October 1944.  On 11 December 1944, while in combat with Company G, 346th Infantry, 87th Infantry Division, an 88 millimeter shell landed between him and two other soldiers.  One soldier lost his leg; the other was wounded in the face and was able to walk back to the aid station on his own.  His left ear drum was punctured, but he continued fighting and was captured later that day.  The Germans first gave him medical attention more than a month later.  He was liberated about 12 April 1945 and soon thereafter received medical treatment for his ear from American doctors.  He states a doctor put him in for a Purple Heart but he never received it.  He was discharged 30 November 1945.  (He has been awarded the Prisoner of War Medal.)

5.  The applicant includes two statements, one from a fellow platoon member who was captured at the same time and one from the soldier who was wounded by the same shell and walked to the aid station.  Both statements verify the applicant’s claim.  

6.  The applicant was shown on a POW listing as having a wound or disease and a VA Rating Sheet dated 23 February 1946 also verifies that the applicant incurred a perforated left ear drum during the war.

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.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  While service personnel and medical records are not available, the supporting documentation provided by the applicant offers a credible verification of his battle injury.

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