Hallo! My uncle served in US navy from 1949-1951. (Yes in USA armed forces!) He was son of my Scottish grandfather and born in LA. He served in a destroyer during shore bombardement and was wounded by North Korean anti-aircraft guns... His lung was pierced and he agonised for six months. He is now 75 and lives quite fine thanks to his Navy cheques... I wonder why did he not receive his Purple Heart if they were awarded for wounds? Was it because he was not an american citizen? I will post here more information about him, like in which exact ship did he serve and where was he wounded.
For sure-more service details, and i will be interested to see why he didn't receive the Purple Heart. How was he wounded by AA guns? Were they fired in a horizontal way at his destroyer?
Yes, I cannot tell you more details from him right now because he lives in Glasgow and it will take a while to chat with him nicely... but as soon as I contact him I will ask for more details. But I do remember some parts of his story like he was stealing wheels and petrol for his jeep in Midway... (why wasn't he arrested I do not know...) hehe! Yes, his destroyer could not fire at the shores, because its six-inches guns were very short-ranged, but they served as an escort to other major ships which could bombard the shores. He remembers about a heavy cruiser firing its major guns at the coasts. He told me her name but I do not rember. What I remeber is that that very cruiser was later sold to the Argentinian Navy and became "General Belgrano". And we all know what happened to her... The only guns wuth range enough to hit the ships that North Koreans had were anti-aircraft guns, so they shot them horizontally. They could not pierce ships armour, but there were some wounded men. Five in my uncle's destroyer, he among them. His lung was pierced and he was nearly died. Why didn't he receive his Purple Heart? As you know he was raised as a British but was at all an American...
Heh heh heh--kind of sounds like one of my uncles and Sgt Vahaly--but those are two different and other stories.
Hi Friedrich, Im not certain, but if he served in the U.S. Navy, then he is entitled to the Purple Hart, and the United Nations, as well as the Korean service medel....at least.....Many men who served never got the medals they were entitled to. I dont know why. But they, or you (being next of kin) can wright to the Department of the Navy ,and ask for any and all decorations he is entitled to. With his permission you can sign the request for him....But you must have his service number, dates of service,rateing (rank)the name of the ship or ships on which he served. Also it is a great help to send them a copy of his DD-214, or a copy of his discharge. My Dad was in ww 11, and was given ribbons, but not the medals which they represent. That was normal for most service medals or Campaign Medals. Most of the time only "Military Meadals" are presented to soldiers, Sailors or Marines.What I mean by that is Medals which represent Valor. The Purple hart is one of those, and he should have gotten it, but his case is not unusaul. Let me know if think you would want to wright away for them on this same thread, and I will try to find the compleate address for you....later
One word of warning about requesting medals - it takes a long, long time. My gramps did that and it took them a year and a half to send him his awards. But....It is pretty great when you get them. They engrave the vet's name on the back of awards. I know a guy who drove an apc in vietnam. The VC hit it with a rocket. He woke up it the hospital and still has shrapnel in his hand. For some reason he never got a purple heart. I guess it's just typical beraucracy.(I never did learn how to spell that word). My uncle said that officers in WWII occasionally cut themselves on c-rat cans and put eachother in for the purple heart. If no one ever put your uncle in for the purple heart, you probably won't be able to get it for him now. But it may be in his records. That same uncle of mine ordered his medals and found out that he got a 2nd Bronze Star in 44 that he never knew about!
