2. The applicant requests that his separation document (WD AGO Form 53-55) be corrected to show that he was awarded the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 2 campaign stars, the Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge or the Bronze Star Medal.
3. He states that he served in combat in Normandy and Northern France but his discharge only reflects the Good Conduct Medal. Others who served with him have discharges that reflect the awards noted above. He believes he should also have the Purple Heart because he was wounded by shrapnel during the campaign in Northern France.
4. The applicant's military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973. Information herein was obtained from alternate sources.
5. He enlisted on 20 January 1942 and was honorably discharged in the grade of staff sergeant on 12 December 1945. The only award listed on his separation document is the Good Conduct Medal.
6. The available records show that he served 1 year, 9 months and 25 days in the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations and participated in the Normandy and Northern France campaigns. Based on the foregoing information, it appears that he should have been awarded, in addition to the Good Conduct Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the European-African- Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the Meritorious Unit Emblem. There is, however, no evidence to indicate that he was recommended for the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Bronze Star Medal or the Purple Heart.
7. 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.
8. The same regulation provides, in pertinent part, that the Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Army of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military operations against an armed enemy; or while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
9. Subsequent to the cessation of hostilities during World War II, the regulation governing the award of the Bronze Star Medal was changed, in part, to provide for the award of this decoration to those individuals who had been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge or the Combat Medical Badge for meritorious achievement in ground combat against the armed enemy between 7 December 1941 and 2 September 1945.
CONCLUSIONS:
1. The evidence of record substantiates that the applicant served in the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations and is, therefore, authorized that award.
2. Additionally, by being in the appropriate theater of operations or for federal service during the designated time frames, he is authorized the American Campaign Medal, the Meritorious Unit Emblem, and the World War II Victory Medal.
3. However, the record does not show and the applicant has not provided any evidence to substantiate that he was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman Badge or the Bronze Star Medal.
4. In view of the foregoing, the applicants 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 individual concerned was awarded the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Meritorious Unit Emblem, and the World War II Victory Medal.
2. That so much of the application that is in excess of the foregoing be denied.
BOARD VOTE:
GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION
GRANT FORMAL HEARING
DENY APPLICATION
CHAIRPERSON
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