IN THE CASE OF: BOARD DATE: 25 February 2016 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20150008443 THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE: 1. Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any). 2. Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any). THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant, the son of a deceased former service member (FSM), requests reconsideration of his father’s earlier request to have his record corrected to show award of the Purple Heart. 2. The applicant states that the FSM was awarded the Purple Heart in the field while serving in France. The Purple Heart was to be mailed home to his parents but was never delivered. This request has been ongoing all this time and has never been fulfilled. 3. The applicant provides a: * Certification of Death * color photograph of FSM’s injury * medical report, printed on 20 February 2013 * letter written by the applicant, dated 20 March 2014 * memorandum, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), dated 11 April 2014 * congressional inquiry with allied documents CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE: 1. Incorporated herein by reference are military records which were summarized in the previous consideration of the FSM’s cases by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) in Docket Number AC98-12740 on 23 December 1998 and Docket Number AR20130008663, on 14 January 2014. 2. The medical records provided by the applicant are new evidence, which warrant consideration by the Board as an exception to policy. 3. The FSM’s WD AGO Form 53-55 (Enlisted Record and Report of Separation-Honorable Discharge) shows that he: * entered active service on 2 February 1973 * separated on 8 March 1946 * was an Administrative First Sergeant at the time of separation * was not wounded in action (item 34 (Wounds received in Action) 4. His record also contains: a. an Organization or Detachment Commander’s Report which shows the FSM was reported as “taken sick” on 25 August 1945. His illness was determined to be in the line of duty by a medical officer and his final disposition was listed as “duty.” b. a WD AGO Form 38 (Report of Physical Examination of Enlisted Personnel Prior to Discharge, Release from Active Duty or Retirement). Instructions listed on this form required that the date of onset and the circumstances for all significant diseases, wounds, and injuries be listed in item 11. Item 11 contains the entry, “No history of malaria or syphilis. A stomach disorder, June, 1945, 178 General Hospital, France.” 5. The applicant provided a medical report, printed on 20 February 2013, which stated there was a “deformity along the distal aspect of the proximal phalanx of the right thumb suspicious of old trauma or degenerative change as there was a similar finding on the study of 2011.” In addition, he provided: a. a color photograph of this scar. b. a letter he wrote on 20 March 2014, addressed to NARA, requesting information related to the FSM being stabbed with a knife while protecting a Prisoner of War enclosure, at Avize, France. He stated that during this incident the FSM captured the assailant and turned him over to the Military Police for interrogation. The FSM was treated for his wound at a field hospital near Epernay, France, and subsequently awarded the Purple Heart on the field while preparing to board a ship to return home. The FSM requested that the award be mailed to him; however, he never received it. 6. There are no orders awarding the FSM the Purple Heart. 7. Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards) states the Purple Heart is awarded to any member who has been wounded or killed in action. A wound is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside force, element, or agent sustained while in action in the face of the armed enemy or as a result of a hostile act of such enemy. In order to support awarding a member the Purple Heart, it is necessary to establish that the wound for which the award is being made required treatment by medical personnel and the medical treatment for the wound or injury received in action must have been made a matter of official record. 8. Army Regulation 15-185 (Army Board for Correction of Military Records) prescribes the policies and procedures for correction of military records by the Secretary of the Army, acting through the ABCMR. The regulation provides that the ABCMR begins its consideration of each case with the presumption of administrative regularity. The applicant has the burden of proving an error or injustice by a preponderance of the evidence. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: 1. The applicant requests correction of the FSM’s record to show award of the Purple Heart. 2. The Board is not an investigative body; therefore, it must rely on evidence available in the record or provided by the applicant. Evidence provided by the applicant shows the FSM completed a separation physical prior to his discharge and there was no mention of a combat- related injury annotated on this form. Further, his WD AGO Form 53-55 did not list a combat injury. 3. The Army regulatory guidance governing the criteria for award of the Purple Heart is clear in that the wound for which the award is made must have been sustained while in action in the face of the armed enemy or as a result of a hostile act of such enemy, the wound must have required treatment by medical personnel, and the record of the medical treatment for the wound or injury sustained in action must have been made a matter of official record. 4. Notwithstanding the applicant's sincerity and his unwavering determination to obtain information to support the award of the Purple Heart to the FSM, there is insufficient evidence to corroborate he incurred an injury while engaged in combat. In the absence of evidence that shows he was wounded/injured as a result of enemy action, and treated for those wounds, he does not meet the criteria for award of the Purple Heart in this case. 5. The applicant and all others concerned should know that this action related to award of the Purple Heart in no way diminishes the sacrifices made by the FSM in service to our Nation. The applicant and all Americans should be justifiably proud of the FSM's service in arms. BOARD VOTE: ________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING ____X___ ____X___ ____X____ DENY APPLICATION BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION: The evidence presented does not demonstrate the existence of a probable error or injustice. Therefore, the Board determined that the overall merits of this case are insufficient as a basis to amend the decision of the ABCMR set forth in Docket Number AC98-12740 on 23 December 1998 and Docket Number AR20130008663, on 14 January 2014. ____________X____________ CHAIRPERSON I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case. ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20150008443 3 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1 ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20150008443 4 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1