Purple Heart

[Garfield411]

Hopefully someone can clear this up for me and some of my Marine buddies/co-workers. I was of the understanding that in order to get awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received; you had to be put in by your C.O. or a Medical officer. There was a discussion at work and some of us wondered if after you were awarded "X" number of them, did you have an option of getting out of country early? There is some 67 total combined years of service between the eight of us Marines here at work and none of us could come up with an answer. Mostly because none of us had ever been awarded a Purple Heart. I appreciate you all letting me join the group, and I too am one to say" thank you" to you Marines. You lived a part of Marine Corps History; I just read about it in the history books. I am proud to be a member of the Popasmoke organization. Semper FI.


Chris Breaux, CH-53D and UH-1N Crewchief.

[orlando ingvold]

If I remember right, after the third PH you could request to go home as Kerry did.
Lanny

[sgtdave]

I wasn't sure myself but I found this web page:

http://www.americal.org/awards/ph.htm

Below is a quote from that page:

"While clearly an individual decoration, the Purple Heart differs from all other decorations in that an individual is not "recommended" for the decoration; rather he or she is entitled to it upon meeting specific criteria."

There is a lot more to be said about the decoration, how and why it is awarded. Most of it is common sense, in that it is awarded for injuries received in combat, but the web site goes into some good details.

[GEORGE CURTIS]

FYI

he following criteria governs award of the Purple Heart in ALL branches of service, not just the United States Army. The text here is taken directly from AR 600-8-22, 25 February 1995 and Public Law 104-106 - Feb. 10, 1996

http://www.purpleheart.org/Awd_of_PH.htm

[Duke]

In answer to the original question, I believe that for the Vietnam War, if you were wounded 3 times in one tour, you could request permission to be sent back stateside.
I never saw any documentation of this as a policy. I had a friend of mine who was wounded twice during his first tour. On his second tour, he was wounded again and when he requested to go back, he was told about the three times in one tour requirement.
Then again, we all know stories of some guys who were wounded and refused to accept the PH so they would NOT have to go home. In my particular case, it was a Navy Corpsman who had been wounded a half dozen times in the twenty four months he was there, (his original tour plus two six month extensions).
Someone who is good at research could probably check the MarCor orders for that time frame for an accurate and definitive answer as to whether it came from DOD, Dept of the Navy or HQ USMC.

Duke Dearing
HMH-462 - 1968-69