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ARMY | BCMR | CY1990-1993 | 9008792
Original file (9008792.rtf) Auto-classification: Approved
2. The applicant requests reconsideration of his previous application for award of the Purple Heart for a cold weather injury sustained in Europe in February 1945. He contends after several days of being pinned down by the enemy that the weather records for the location and time of his injury indicate that a diagnosis of frostbite feet is probably more accurate than trenchfoot, the diagnosis of record. He also states he spent three months in the hospital and that a doctor looked at his swelled up purple feet and stated he would receive the Purple Heart.
3. The applicant’s service medical records show that he was exposed to cold, wetness and mud in a foxhole for 3 days. The initial symptoms on 2 February 1945 were frozen fingertips, pain, and numbness in the hips, back, and feet. Following the swelling of his feet he was evacuated on 5 February 1945 and hospitalized at the 155 th general hospital. The Final Summary dated 2 April 1945 reads, in pertinent part, DIAGNOSIS: 1. Trench foot, bilateral, mild.

4. The applicant’s request was previously considered and denied by the Board on 24 April 1991. The Memorandum of Consideration (MOC) for the original review shows that the denial of the Purple Heart was based upon partially reconstructed military and medical records which prompted the conclusion that the applicant’s condition was more consistent with trench foot rather than with frostbite.

5. Excerpts from an Army historical document which is attached to a Surgeon General Opinion in a similar case, discusses the topic at issue, trenchfoot vs frostbite, it makes clear numerous specific points including the following: The term “element” (included from the beginning) meant weather. The governing regulation and policy were not always the same. Both policy and enforcement varied from time to time and place to place and were not consistently applied even in adjacent major European commands. The regulation normally authorized the Purple Heart for frostbite while in combat and sometimes excluded the award for trenchfoot while in combat. The Medical Department resisted administering a policy they could not control; in part, because initial diagnosis was very difficult yet the symptomatic development of individual conditions invited re-diagnosis, in part, because the ultimate degree of permanent disability had virtually nothing to do with the initial cause; in part, because training and enforcement of prevention rested with line commanders; and finally, because initial diagnosis, while extremely difficult, was almost always made by medical personnel who were intimately familiar with both the weather and the tactical situation, but rear echelon doctors tended to change the diagnoses for whatever reasons met their needs.

6. Army Regulation 600-8-22 presently effective and the award regulation then in effect both provide that the Purple Heart is awarded for a wound sustained while in action against any enemy or 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. Upon initial rescue, among other things, the applicant was found to be suffering from frozen fingertips. While the final diagnosis regarding his feet may be questionable it is the normal policy of this Board not to alter medical records. Nevertheless, the applicant incurred an injury while in action against an enemy and in light of all the circumstances of the case, including the regulatory requirements and the inconsistent policies in effect at the time, award of the Purple Heart, as an exception to policy, would correct an injustice.

2. In view of the foregoing findings and conclusions, it would be appropriate to correct the applicant’s records 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 2 February 1945.


 BOARD VOTE :

GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

 GRANT FORMAL HEARING

 DENY APPLICATION




                 
                  CHAIRPERSON

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