| Mr. Carl W. S. Chun | Director | |
| Mr. W. W. Osborn, Jr. | Analyst |
| Mr. George D. Paxson | Chairperson | |
| Mr. Thomas A. Pagan | Member | |
| Mr. Melvin H. Meyer | Member |
APPLICANT REQUESTS: Award of the Purple Heart. He states that he was accidentally shot by a fellow soldier while they were guarding prisoners who were on a work project. The record is wrong in that the other soldier was “clearing” rather than “cleaning” his weapon. Before he left the hospital in Japan a chaplain came around collecting data for award of the Purple Heart. He left for the United States before he ever found out if he was eligible for the Purple Heart. He also requests any other awards or decorations he may be entitled to receive. He lists the date of discovery as June 2001 and believes that the Board should waive the time limit and consider the case because, “it’s wrong and should be corrected.”
PURPOSE: To determine whether the application was submitted within the time limit established by law, and if not, whether it is in the interest of justice to excuse the failure to timely file.
EVIDENCE OF RECORD: The applicant's military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) fire of 1973. Information herein was obtained from reconstructed personnel records. There are no military personnel records, not even a discharge document. His medical records are apparently intact and were apparently on loan to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at the time of the NPRC fire.
Army Regulation 600-8-22 provides, in pertinent part, that the Purple Heart is awarded for a wound sustained while in action against an 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.
The situation the applicant describes does not make him eligible for award of the Purple Heart.
Title 10, U.S. Code, section 1552(b), provides that applications for correction of military records must be filed within 3 years after discovery of the alleged error or injustice. Failure to file within 3 years may be excused by a correction board if it finds it would be in the interest of justice to do so.
DISCUSSION: The alleged error or injustice was, or with reasonable diligence should have been discovered on 12 December 1952, the date the applicant lists as his discharge date. The time for the applicant to file a request for correction of any error or injustice expired on 12 December 1955.
The application is dated 11 June 2001 and the applicant has not explained or otherwise satisfactorily demonstrated by competent evidence that it would be in the interest of justice to excuse the failure to apply within the time allotted.
DETERMINATION: The subject application was not submitted within the time required. The applicant has not presented and the records do not contain sufficient justification to conclude that it would be in the interest of justice to grant the relief requested or to excuse the failure to file within the time prescribed by law. Prior to reaching this determination the Board looked at the applicant's entire file. It was only after all aspects of his case had been considered and it had been concluded that there was no basis to recommend a correction of his record that the Board considered the statute of limitations. Had the Board determined that an error or injustice existed it would have recommended relief in spite of the applicant's failure to submit his application within the three-year time limit.
BOARD VOTE:
________ ________ ________ EXCUSE FAILURE TO TIMELY FILE
________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING
___GDP_ ___TAP__ __MHM_ CONCUR WITH DETERMINATION
| CASE ID | Ar20010596161 |
| SUFFIX | |
| RECON | |
| DATE BOARDED | 20020221 |
| TYPE OF DISCHARGE | |
| DATE OF DISCHARGE | |
| DISCHARGE AUTHORITY | AR . . . . . |
| DISCHARGE REASON | |
| BOARD DECISION | DENY |
| REVIEW AUTHORITY | |
| ISSUES 1. | 142.00 |
| 2. | 107.00 |
| 3. | |
| 4. | |
| 5. | |
| 6. |
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