IN THE CASE OF:
BOARD DATE: 1 September 2009
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20090005716
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 award of the Purple Heart.
2. The applicant states he has residuals of shrapnel to his right ankle and was hospitalized while on active duty while in Italy.
3. The applicant provides an order showing he was transferred to the Detachment of Patients at an Army hospital effective 26 June 1945, and his WD AGO Form 53-55 (Enlisted Record and Report of Separation Honorable Discharge).
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 applicant's military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973. Information herein was obtained from reconstructed personnel records.
3. The applicant was inducted in the Army on 22 March 1943, was awarded the military occupational specialty of radio repairman, and was promoted to the rank of private first class. He served in the European Theater of Operations from 21 May 1944 to 16 December 1945.
4. He was honorably released from active duty on 30 December 1945. The WD AGO Form 53-55 he was issued, Item 34, Wounds Received In Action, has "None" entered.
5. A health record research project, commonly referred to as the "SGO Files", involved transposing the hospital admission card data from the periods of World War II and the Korean conflict onto magnetic tape. Searches of these files show that the applicant was hospitalized or received medical treatment in September 1944 for carbuncle, on 2 May 1945 for a blister on his ankle, and on 30 October 1945 for gonococcal urethritis or cervicitis, acute. The admission record for the blister explains that the underlying condition for the blister was cellulitis and disposition of the applicant's medical condition was not made until June 1945. There is no record of the applicant being hospitalized or treated for shrapnel wounds.
6. Army Regulation 600-8-22 provides that the Purple Heart is awarded for wounds 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.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
1. There is no evidence that the applicant was treated for shrapnel wounds to his ankle. However, there is a record showing he was treated for blisters on his ankle in June 1945.
2. Without evidence to show that the applicant was treated for a wound that was received as a result of hostile action, there is insufficient evidence in which to grant his request.
BOARD VOTE:
________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING
____X___ ___X____ ___X___ 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 the applicant in service to our Nation. The applicant and all Americans should be justifiably proud of his service in arms.
_______ _ X _______ ___
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.
ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20090005716
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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20090005716
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