BOARD DATE: 10 November 2011
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20110008444
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 correction of his DD Form 214 (Armed Forces of the United States Report of Transfer or Discharge) to show award of the Purple Heart.
2. The applicant states he has the orders for the Purple Heart.
3. The applicant provides unsigned General Orders Number 52, dated 10 September 1968, which award him the Purple Heart. This order shows he was wounded (Date of Action) on 27 March 1968.
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 show that he was inducted into the Army on 13 October 1966 and he was awarded the military occupational specialty of lineman.
3. He arrived in Vietnam on 16 October 1967. His duty status was changed to patient on 27 March 1968. He was transferred to a hospital in the United States on 17 April 1968.
4. On 8 October 1968, he was honorably released from active duty. His
DD Form 214 does not list the Purple Heart as an authorized award.
5. His records do not contain orders awarding him the Purple Heart. His DA Form 20, Item 40 (Wounds) is blank. The Vietnam Casualty List does not contain his name as being wounded. There are no medical records showing that the applicant was wounded.
6. Review of the Awards and Decorations Computer-Assisted Retrieval System (ADCARS), an index of general orders issued during the Vietnam era between 1965 and 1973 maintained by the Military Awards Branch of the United States Army Human Resources Command, failed to reveal any orders awarding the applicant the Purple Heart.
7. Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards) 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. The applicant's duty status was changed to patient while he was in Vietnam and he was transferred to a hospital in the United States. He provides page one of an order awarding him the Purple Heart which shows he was wounded on the date his duty status changed to patient. Because the second page of the order was not provided to the Board, there is no signature authenticating this order.
2. However, there is no entry for wounds on his DA Form 20, his name is not contained in the Vietnam Casualty List or ADCARS, and the orders he submits are not contained in his records.
3. Soldiers in Vietnam were hospitalized for a full range of conditions, with many of those conditions not a result of hostile action. Given the absence of the applicant's Purple Heart orders in his military records, the absence of an entry for wounds on his DA Form 20, the absence of orders in ADCARS, and the absence of an entry identifying him as being wounded on the Vietnam Casualty List, the possibility exists that the orders submitted by the applicant were revoked or amended.
4. Medical records of the applicant's wound would allow the Board to determine whether the absence of any indication that the applicant was wounded as a result of hostile action was intentional or an oversight. These records should be available in the applicant's Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical records, which the applicant should be able to access.
5. As such, there is currently insufficient basis to grant his request.
BOARD VOTE:
________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING
__X___ ___X_____ ___X_____ DENY APPLICATION
BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION:
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.
_______ _ 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) AR20110008444
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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20110008444
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