PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF: 

	BOARD DATE:           10 February 2000
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR1999024549

	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. David H. Keller		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Mr. Van B. Cunningham		Chairperson	
	Mr. James P. Steuve		Member	
	Mr. Kenneth L. Wright		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.  He states that he received the medal, but it does not appear on his Report of Separation (WD AGO Form 53-55).

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

4.  The applicant was inducted and entered active service on 27 November 1942. He arrived in the overseas area of operations on 14 July 1944 and returned to the United States on 19 November 1945.  

5.  He was discharged on 24 November 1945 as a result of demobilization.  His WD AGO Form 53-55 does not list the Purple Heart as an authorized award and shows wounds received in action as “none.”

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 file of 1973.  The best available estimation of the completeness of this project is that it captured at least 95 percent of all combat casualty hospital admissions.  

7.  The SGO files shows the applicant was hospitalized on 12 January 1945 as a battle casualty with “wound(s), penetrating (point of entrance only: includes incised, puncture or stab wound) with no nerve or artery involvement” located in the buccal cavity; and for “blast injury (sudden high pressure from air or water) located in the lung.  The causal agent was described as “artillery shell, fragments, afoot or unspecified.”

8.  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.  The evidence confirms that the applicant was wounded as a result of hostile action on 12 January 1945 and is entitled to award of the Purple Heart.

2.  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 awarding the individual concerned the Purple Heart for wounds sustained on 12 January 1945 as a result of hostile action during World War II.

BOARD VOTE:  

__VBC__  __JPS___  __KLW__  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

		__VAN B. CUNNINGHAM__
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR1999024549	
SUFFIX		
RECON		
DATE BOARDED	YYYYMMDD	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE		
DATE OF DISCHARGE		
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY		
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	GRANT	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.	107.00	
2.		
3.		
4.		
5.		
6.