PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:  

	BOARD DATE:           25 January 2001                   
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR2000050424

	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:

	Ms. June Hajjar		Chairperson	
	Mr. Lester Echols		Member	
	Ms. Karen A. Heinz		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 in March 1969 his unit was mortared and he received shrapnel wounds to his back.  The medic was very busy treating more severe injuries but the next day the medic removed the shrapnel from his back.

4.  The applicant’s military records are not available.  The information contained herein was obtained from alternate sources.

5.  The applicant was inducted into the Army on 2 August 1967.  He completed basic combat training and advanced individual training and was awarded military occupational specialty 11B (Light Weapons Infantryman).

6.  The applicant’s Report of Transfer or Discharge, DD Form 214, shows that he was separated as an overseas returnee on 22 July 1969.  He had served 11 months and 29 days in Vietnam and his last duty assignment was Company D, 3d Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.

7.  The applicant provides two substantiating statements.  A fellow platoon member states that he recalls the applicant approaching the unit medic the day after the mortaring on 12 March 1969.  He recalls the medic examining the applicant and determining that he had received shrapnel wounds from the previous day’s action.  He does not remember the treatment but attests that the applicant’s wounds did require attention.

8.  The unit’s medic provides a statement.  He states that he recalls that Companies B and D, 3d Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division were on an operation on 12 March 1969 to take a hilltop landing zone.  At one point one of their elements was ambushed and many casualties were taken.  As the companies continued to move, more casualties were suffered.  The only administrative action he could take at the time was to check on the field medical card whether morphine was administered.  After both companies reached the top of the hill, the North Vietnamese started mortaring them.  More men were wounded.  Several wounded were evacuated by air.  The next morning as he made his rounds, the applicant told him that he had been hit the day prior.  He looked at the applicant’s injuries and removed the shrapnel from his upper left back with a probe and tissue forceps from his field surgical kit and cleaned the wound.  The applicant was needed in the field since they had been ordered to pack up and move on to the next hill.  In the confusion he did not fill out a field medical card on the applicant.

9.  The medic provides a copy of orders awarding him the Army Commendation Medal with “V” device for action on 12 March 1969.  The orders show his unit as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.  The citation notes that he had served as a medic with Company D of that battalion.  The circumstances of the action as noted in the citation is consistent with the circumstances as outlined by the applicant and his platoon comrade.

10.  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.  Statements of individuals are normally inadequate as the sole basis for an award of the Purple Heart because they do not fulfill the regulatory requirement that there be a record of medical treatment.  However, in this case the Board concludes that the two supporting statements, in particular the one from the unit medic, are credible evidence that the applicant did in fact receive the wounds claimed and was treated by competent battlefield medical personnel.  They offer a plausible explanation of why medical documentation is not available.

2.  In view of the foregoing, the applicant’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 awarding the applicant the Purple Heart for wounds received in action on 12 March 1969.

2.  That the applicant’s DD Form 214 be amended to add the Purple Heart.

BOARD VOTE:  

__jh____  __le____  __kah___  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

			June Hajjar
		______________________
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR2000050424	
SUFFIX		
RECON		
DATE BOARDED	20010125	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE		
DATE OF DISCHARGE		
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY		
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	(GRANT)	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.	107.0015	
2.		
3.		
4.		
5.		
6.