PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:  

	BOARD DATE:           12 December 2000                   
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR2000045176

	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. Carl W. S. Chun		Director	
	Mrs. Nancy Amos		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Mr. Fred N. Eichorn		Chairperson	
	Ms. Lana E. McGlynn		Member	
	Mr. Harry B. Oberg		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, as the legal representative of the next of kin of a deceased former service member (FSM), award of the Purple Heart 2d oak leaf cluster (third award of the Purple Heart).

3.  The applicant states that his uncle was entitled to three Purple Hearts – one for a bayonet wound to an arm in June 1944, one for a gunshot wound to an arm in July 1944, and one when he was killed in February 1945.  Supporting evidence is as listed on his 20 November 2000 addition to his DD Form 149.

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

5.  On an unknown date, the FSM entered the Army.  He arrived in the European Theater of Operations in time to participate in the Normandy invasion.  

6.  A 29 January 2000 letter from a member of the FSM’s squad recalled that the FSM’s first entitlement to the Purple Heart came on or about D-Day when he was bayoneted in the arm by a German soldier.  An undated newspaper article apparently from the FSM’s hometown newspaper shows that the FSM had been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received on the Normandy beachhead and that he was convalescing from a bayonet wound in his left arm in an American hospital in England.  Three other, later newspaper articles refer to his three wounds.

7.  An Office of the Surgeon General Hospital Admission Card shows that the FSM was wounded in the forearm by a machine gun bullet in July 1944.  Another shows he was wounded, and killed, by a bullet wound to the thorax on                 9 February 1945.

8.  Authorization for Issuance of Awards, DA Form 1557, shows that the applicant was authorized issuance of the awards to which the FSM was entitled, to include the Purple Heart with one oak leaf cluster (two awards of the Purple Heart).

9.  Army Regulation 600-8-22 provides policy and criteria concerning individual military decorations.  In pertinent part, it states that the Purple Heart is awarded to any member of an Armed Force who has been wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States.  The wound must have required treatment by a medical officer and records of medical treatment for wounds or injuries received in action must have been made a matter of official record.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  The official evidence of record shows that the FSM was wounded in action and hospitalized in July 1944 for a bullet wound and was killed in action in February 1945.  A DA Form 1577 shows that the applicant was authorized issuance of two awards of the Purple Heart in the name of the FSM, presumably based upon these two documents.

2.  Unofficial evidence shows that the FSM had been wounded and hospitalized in June 1944 for a bayonet wound.  The Board finds this evidence -- statements by fellow member of the FSM’s squad corroborated by several newspaper articles -- sufficient as a basis for award of the Purple Heart for a wound received on or about 6 June 1944.  This would entitle the FSM to three awards of the Purple Heart.

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

RECOMMENDATION:

1.  That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing that the FSM was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in action on or about 6 June 1944 and that he was entitled to three awards of the Purple Heart.

2.  That the applicant be authorized issuance of an additional oak leaf cluster for the FSM’s third award of the Purple Heart.

BOARD VOTE:  

__fne___  __lem___  __hbo___  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

			Fred N. Eichorn
		______________________
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR2000045176	
SUFFIX		
RECON		
DATE BOARDED	20001212	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE		
DATE OF DISCHARGE		
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY		
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	(GRANT)	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.	107.0015	
2.		
3.		
4.		
5.		
6.