BOARD DATE: 2 May 2013
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20120018747
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 that while serving with the 2nd Infantry Division in Germany during the year 1944, he suffered a broken back as a result of a hostile shell explosion.
3. The applicant provides a copy of 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 are not available for review. A fire destroyed approximately 18 million service members' records at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973. It is believed the applicant's records were lost or destroyed in that fire. However, the documents contained in a reconstructed record are sufficient to conduct a fair and impartial review of this case.
3. The applicant was inducted and entered active duty at Fort Custer, Michigan on 2 June 1942. He completed his training as a low speed radio operator and departed for the European Theater of Operations (ETO) on 8 October 1943.
4. He served in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland and Ardennes Campaigns and on 26 February 1945 he was admitted to a General Hospital for a herniation, nucleus pulposus.
5. He was returned to the United States on 28 April 1945 and was transferred to the Percy Jones Hospital Center at Fort Custer, Michigan where he remained until 8 September 1945 when he was honorably discharged with a Certificate of Disability for Discharge.
6. Information from the hospital admission cards created by the Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army for the period 1942 1945 shows that the applicant was admitted to the hospital for a disease and that the circumstances did not involve a traumatism. It also shows that he was discharged for medical reasons but not for any residual condition with a code.
7. Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards) states 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 medical personnel, and the medical treatment must have been made a matter of official record.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
1. The sincerity of the applicants claim that he was wounded in action in Germany is not in doubt. However, he has failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate his claim.
2. Therefore, in the absence of evidence to show that he was wounded as a result of enemy action and that medical treatment for that wound was made a matter of record, there appears to be no basis to award him the Purple Heart.
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 to know that the sacrifices he made in service to the United States during World War II are deeply appreciated. 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) AR20120018747
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