IN THE CASE OF:
BOARD DATE: 23 September 2008
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20080005054
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 requests, in effect, that his WD AGO Form 53-55 (Enlisted Record and Report of Separation) be amended to show he is eligible to wear two bronze service stars on his Parachutist Badge.
2. The applicant states that he was in the hospital for two months, and then he came home and went to rehabilitation. A friend from the 101st Parachute told him that he (his friend) had one star on his Parachutist Badge. That is how the applicant knew that he should get it.
3. The applicant provides his WD AGO Form 53-55; an Annual Static Line Membership application; and his Honorable Discharge Certificate.
CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE:
1. 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. This provision of law also allows the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) to excuse an applicants failure to timely file within the 3-year statute of limitations if the ABCMR determines it would be in the interest of justice to do so. While it appears the applicant did not file within the time frame provided in the statute of limitations, the ABCMR has elected to conduct a substantive review of this case and, only to the extent relief, if any, is granted,
has determined it is in the interest of justice to excuse the applicants failure to timely file. In all other respects, there are insufficient bases to waive the statute of limitations for timely filing.
2. The applicants military records are not available to the Board for review. A fire destroyed approximately 18 million service members records at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973. It is believed that the applicants records were lost or destroyed in that fire. However, there were sufficient documents, consisting of the documents he provided, remaining in a reconstructed record, for the Board to conduct a fair and impartial review of this case.
3. The applicants WD AGO 53-55 shows he was inducted into the Army and entered active duty on 7 July 1941. He arrived in the European Theater of Operations on 10 May 1943; he participated in the Sicily, Naples-Foggia, and Normandy campaigns; he was wounded on 9 June 1944; he departed the theater on 25 September 1944; and he was discharged with a certificate of disability on 14 June 1945.
4. The applicants WD AGO Form 53-55 shows his last unit of assignment was Medical Detachment, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82d Airborne Division.
5. The applicants WD AGO Form 53-55 shows he was awarded the Parachutist Badge, the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the Army Good Conduct Medal.
6. Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards), in pertinent part, sets forth requirements for award of the basic Parachutist Badge. Paragraph 8-10g states a bronze service star is authorized to be worn on the parachutist badge to denote a Soldier's participation in a combat parachute jump and that orders are required to confirm award of these badges.
7. Army Regulation 600-8-22 also states that credit for a combat parachute jump is related directly to credit for a combat assault landing for the unit to which the Soldier is assigned at the time of the assault. The regulation specifically requires that the unit must be credited with a combat assault in order for the Soldiers to receive the parachutist badge with the bronze service star affixed and that each Soldier must physically exit the aircraft to receive combat assault credit and the Parachutist Badge with bronze service star.
8. Department of the Army Pamphlet 672-1 (Unit Citation and Campaign Participation Credit Register) lists the unit awards received by units serving
during World War II. This document shows that the 505th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 82d Airborne Division, was awarded assault credit for Gela (a town in a Sicilian province) for the period 9 through 11 July 1943; for Normandy for the period 6 through 7 June 1944; and for Nijmegen Arnhem for 17 September 1944.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
1. Since the applicants records are not available, it can only be determined for certain that his last unit of assignment was the Medical Detachment, 505th Parachutist Infantry Regiment. It is not known when he was assigned to the unit.
2. Even if the applicant was assigned to the unit for the entire period of time he was in the European Theater of Operations, it still cannot be determined that he met the eligibility criterion of physically exiting from the aircraft during the assaults on Gela and Normandy. (He was hospitalized during the Nijmegen Arnhem assault.)
3. Regrettably, at this late date and with the available evidence it cannot be determined that the applicant met the eligibility criteria for award of any bronze service stars on his Parachutist Badge.
BOARD VOTE:
________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING
___xx___ ___xx___ ___xx___ DENY APPLICATION
BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION:
1. 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 for correction of the records of the individual concerned.
2. The Board wants the applicant and all others concerned to know that this action in no way diminishes the sacrifices made by him in service to our Nation. The applicant and all Americans should be justifiably proud of his service in arms.
_________xxxx_________
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.
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