PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:   

	BOARD DATE:            2 December 1999                  
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR1999022765

	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. Sherri V. Ward		Chairperson	
	Mr. Van B. Cunningham 		Member	
	Ms. Barbara J. Ellis		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 he be awarded the Purple Heart.

3.  The applicant states that he was wounded in a helicopter landing in Vietnam.

4.  In support of his application he submits a telegram from the Adjutant General of the Army to his parents dated 30 July 1968.  In that telegram it was stated 
“ . . . your son . . . was wounded in Vietnam on 29 July 1968.  He received temporary loss of hearing.  He was on landing zone waiting for re-supply helicopter to land.  Helicopter landed detonating hostile booby trap.  Please be assured that the best medical facilities and doctors have been made available and every measure is being taken to aid him.  He is hospitalized in Vietnam . . .“

5.  The applicant’s military records show that he was inducted on active duty on 4 October 1966, was awarded the military occupational specialty of infantryman and served in Vietnam for 11 months and 25 days.

6.  He was honorably released from active duty in pay grade E-4 on 28 September 1968.  The DD Form 214 he was issued does not list the Purple Heart.

7.  Army Regulation 672-5-1 provides, in pertinent part, that the Purple Heart is awarded for wounds 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.  The applicant was probably not awarded the Purple Heart because his “wound” was not physically apparent; no object broke his bones or penetrated his skin.

2.  However, the sonic rupture of an ear canal is certainly a wound as prescribed by regulation and law.  Since that sonic rupture was caused by an enemy landmine, the applicant should have been awarded the Purple Heart.

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 showing that the individual concerned was awarded the Purple Heart for the wound he received on 29 July 1968.

BOARD VOTE:  

_svw____  _vbc____  _bje_____  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

__      ___  _ __     __  __       ___  DENY APPLICATION

		__      Sherri V Ward_________
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR1999022765	
SUFFIX		
RECON	YYYYMMDD	
DATE BOARDED	19991202	
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.