BOARD DATE: 14 September 2010
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20100010147
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 that he be awarded the Purple Heart.
2. The applicant provides no statements or input to his request.
3. The applicant provides a copy of his DD Form 214 (Armed Forces of the United States Report of Separation or 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 applicant's 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 applicant's failure to timely file. In all other respects, there are insufficient bases to waive the statute of limitations for timely filing.
2. The applicant was inducted into the Army of the United States in Cleveland, Ohio, on 7 November 1967. He completed his basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and his advanced individual training as a field artillery surveyor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
3. He was transferred to Vietnam on 29 April 1968 and was assigned to Battery A, 6th Battalion, 84th Artillery Regiment, for duty as a cannoneer. His military occupational specialty (MOS) was changed to a primary MOS of field artillery basic (13A1O) on 25 July 1968 and on 31 October 1968 he was assigned the duties of a light truck driver while serving in pay grade E-4.
4. He departed Vietnam on 10 June 1969 and was transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was honorably released from active duty as an overseas returnee. He had served 1 year, 7 months, and 3 days of total active service and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal.
5. A review of the applicant's records, including his separation physical/medical examination, failed to reveal any evidence to show the applicant had been wounded/injured while in Vietnam or that he was awarded the Purple Heart. Additionally, his name is not contained in the Vietnam casualty listing.
6. A search of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command Awards and Decorations Computer-Assisted Retrieval System, a web-based index containing roughly 611,000 general orders issued between 1965 and 1973 for the Vietnam era, failed to reveal an order awarding the applicant the Purple Heart.
7. Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards) provides 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.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
1. The applicant's contention that he should be awarded the Purple Heart has been noted and appears to lack merit.
2. There appears to be no evidence of record and the applicant provided none to show he was wounded as a result of enemy action, that treatment was required, or that the treatment was made a matter of record. Accordingly, there appears to be no basis to grant his request.
3. In order to justify correction of a military record, the applicant must show to the satisfaction of the Board or it must otherwise satisfactorily appear that the record is in error or unjust. The applicant has failed to submit evidence that would satisfy the aforementioned requirement.
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 the United States during the Vietnam War. 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) AR20100010147
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