PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:   

	BOARD DATE:            9 December 1999                  
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR1999021161

	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	
	Mr. Edmund P. Mercanti		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Ms. JoAnn H. Langston		Chairperson	
	Mr. Thomas D. Howard, Jr.		Member	
	Mr. James P. Steuve		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 that her husband’s WD AGO Form 53-55 be corrected to show that he was awarded the Good Conduct Medal (GCM) and the Prisoner of War (POW) Medal.

3.  In support of her request the applicant submits copies of the diary her husband kept during WWII, several letters sent to her husband’s mother by the Prisoner of War Listening Post, a copy of a Claim for Property Damaged, Lost, Destroyed, Captured or Abandoned in the Service, wherein her husband requested compensation as a result of “German front line troops searched me and took my Swiss-made wrist watch on 21 Dec 44.”

4.  The applicant’s husband’s military records could not be located and are presumed to have been destroyed in the fire at the Records Repository in 1973.

5.  Her husband’s WD AGO Form 53-55, which the applicant provided to the Board, shows that he was inducted on 26 May 1941, served as a crane operator in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe, and was promoted to Tech 4.  His decorations include the Purple Heart for wounds he sustained on 21 December 1944 in Belgium.  He was honorably released from active duty on 27 October 1945.

6. A health record research project, commonly referred to as the "SGO Files", involved transposing the hospital admission card data from the periods of World War II and the Korean conflict onto magnetic tape.  In 1988 the National Research Council made these tape files available to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC).  The availability of the information to the NPRC received considerable publicity by the various veterans service organizations.  It was widely believed that these tapes would become a valuable substitute for the records lost in the NPRC fire of 1973.  Searches of these files show that the applicant was listed as a “Repatriated Prisoner of Germany.”  The date of the repatriation was in 1945.

7.  The POW Medal was authorized on 8 November 1985 and is awarded to individuals who in past armed conflicts were taken prisoner or held captive.  Past conflict in this  instance means only World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.  Hostages of terrorists and persons held by governments with which the United States is not engaged in armed conflict are not eligible.

8.  Army Regulation 672-5-1 provides that the GCM is awarded to individuals who distinguish themselves by their conduct, efficiency and fidelity during a qualifying period of active duty enlisted service.  This period is 3 years except in those cases when the period for the first award ends with the termination of a period of Federal military service.  A record of punishment is not automatically disqualifying.  However, at that time, a single efficiency rating of less than excellent was disqualifying.  Although there is no automatic entitlement to the Good Conduct Medal, disqualification must be justified.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  There is no reason to believe that the applicant’s husband was disqualified for the GCM.  As such, the lack of that award appears to have been an oversight.

2.  While the POW Medal did not exist when the applicant’s husband was discharged, the law enacting that medal made it retroactive to WWII.  Since the SGO files confirm that the applicant’s husband was in fact a POW, he is entitled to that decoration.

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

RECOMMENDATION:

That all Department of the Army records pertaining to this case be corrected by:

	a.  showing that the individual concerned was awarded the POW medal for his capture and internment during WWII; and

	b.  showing that he was awarded the GCM for his period of active service ending 27 October 1945.

BOARD VOTE:  

__jhl____  __tdh____  __jps____  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

		_JoAnn H. Langston________
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR1999021161	
SUFFIX		
RECON	YYYYMMDD	
DATE BOARDED	19991209	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE	(HD, GD, UOTHC, UD, BCD, DD)	
DATE OF DISCHARGE	YYYYMMDD	
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY	AR . . . . .  	
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	GRANT	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.	107.00	
2.		
3.		
4.		
5.		
6.