"Black Hawk Down" Purple Heart

[JBFloyd]

This is the Purple Heart awarded to Sergeant Cornell L. Houston, 41st Engineers, 10th Mountain Division, a casualty in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.

 

Sergeant Houston was on his second deployment to Somalia when he died of wounds (6 October 1993) received in the action to recover two downed UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and relieve trapped Rangers in Mogadishu, the action that formed the basis for the book and movie "Black Hawk Down". Sergeant Houston is buried in the Mobile National Cemetery, Alabama.

 

Houston Hall, the barracks of the 41st Engineers at Fort Drum, New York, is named in his honor. There were 18 American fatal casualties, and an additional 73 wounded in action during this operation.

[uniformcollector]

Incredible!

[LuftStalg1]

A tragic day and some Great Americans lost.

[BigJohn#3RD]

RIP Sergeant Houston,

[smwinter207]

His full name was Cornell L Houston Sr. Would they have left the SR. off the medal?

[swabbie]

Certainly a rare Heart, Jeff. Thank you for posting!

[bobgee]

R.I.P. Sgt Houston

[Manchu Warrior]

I thought it would be appropriate to add the photos.

 

 

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=807345

 

 

[dg0223]

I don't normally post "wow" posts, but wow. I don't collect named PH, but that is a gorgeous medal.

[BEAST]

Jeff, Thank you for remembering him. RIP SGT Houston.

[scottplen]

RIP

[Medalman90]

Thank you for sharing his story JB, and thank you for MW for the photos.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kanemono]

Amazing Jeff! Thanks for sharing.

Dick

[tarbridge]

RIP...

[CtahhR]

I found this in a "bargain bin" in February and have done a vast amount of research since.

I don't understand how this piece was dislocated, or public but I cannot currently offer better images as it is in a museum.

[CtahhR]

I found some more photographs of the BSM from before I loaned it to the museum. These were taken after I re-ribboned it (and the other five named BSMs I got from the same seller). All the BSMs are named and were very fortunately all awarded to people with unique names, so they are all attributed. Houston's for his bravery as a member of "The lost platoon" during the battle of Mogadishu, one for Vietnam and the others are all for combat participation in WWII.

 

As I am used to court mounting British awards I found it amazing how easily and quickly American awards can be re-ribboned. In fact the most difficult part was attaching the devices. Certainly a learning experience.

 

I have gathered a vast amount of information of Sergeant Houston and the action of "the lost platoon" from interviews with other platoon members (including the commander) and a vast array of newspaper articles and video interviews. I will compile everything into a essay to support the medal on display. He was fatally wounded by the Olympic Hotel after saving the lives of other members of the lost recovery team. Some reports state that he was hit by an RPG but I have it on very good authority that he was downed by a Somali rifleman, who was then in turn neutralised by the commanding lieutenant. The "lost" were subjected to a maelstrom of RPG fire and they did a lot of damage to them. Houston got on the wrong end of at least a couple of those as well but managed to keep going. The "lost" were exceptionally lucky in having only two fatalities (Houston and Private Mat Aznan Awang, the driver of the second APV, who was posthumously awarded the Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa) considering the dire situation they found themselves in. Houston is credited with saving the life of a heavily wounded (and permanently disabled) Malaysian soldier, that without Houston's self-sacrificing bravery would have been another fatality.

 

I have tried many different ways to try and obtain the citation for this BSM but have not got close yet. If anyone knows how to go about it, I'm very open to advice. For now we can just be sure of the location and date of action, with the knowledge that the "V" was more than earned.

 

 

[Dave]

So this is an odd one...the seller of Houston's BSM was someone who bought all of the medals as scrap and then resold them on eBay. I don't know why his BSM was scrapped...perhaps because the name was off center? Strangely enough, the medal had been listed as a BIN for several months on eBay without a buyer...but then sold literally days before I photographed Houston's Purple Heart at the SOS this year.

 

My personal conundrum is this: The engraving on Houston's PH is not in keeping with the standard font of the time period. It should be in the similar font as exhibited by the BSM. However, that's not to say that the Purple Hearts for Somalia could not have been done on an engraving machine that was not the one used for other medals at the time - so the engraving is entirely possible - I just don't know why it doesn't follow the standard engraving font of the time period as every other Purple Heart from that period I have seen.

 

Oddly also is his discarded BSM, that was done in the correct font, but later sold as scrap. There's every possibility that the Purple Heart was engraved at one point and the posthumous BSM engraved at another. Perhaps this BSM that was scrapped was a duplicate for some reason?

 

Also interestingly is that Mrs. Houston never remarried and her family has spoken out several times about the loss of her husband and her children's father. That also makes it quite interesting as to why the medals are floating around out there. I have reached out to Mrs. Houston in order to get an appointment with her to photograph her husband's medals (assuming she has them, or perhaps another set) and she has not responded to my requests.

 

Just some added information...

 

Dave

[CtahhR]

The PH shown was sold by DNW in the UK on 10th December 2014 for £1,050 (plus additional costs) in a "made-up" group. As for how it got to England, I have no idea. The BSM nearly ended up in England but I decided to loan it to a museum stateside. It was listed as a buy-it-now for about 4 or 5 months before I bought it (and all the other named medals the seller had). Since I bought them up as a joblot I got an exceptionally good deal. The Vietnam BSM was awarded to a recipient in the air force that is still alive. I contacted him to see if he wanted it back but he informed me that he'd got rid of his medals when he became a pastor.

 

I was on a bit of a US Medals kick earlier this year and bought up a good few named awards that I could attribute (medals named "John Smith" are too tough for me to deal with). This has really opened me up to researching US awards and deciphering the tales that come with them. Unfortunately, more often than not there is an unhappy story behind them.

 

One of the medals I picked up was a named Posthumous Army Achievement Medal, the recipient was a member of the 51st Signals Battalion who committed suicide in Iraq on 11th February 1991. Not the sort of story anyone considers when researching named awards. An only child whose parents have now also died is a very simple explanation as to how this ended up on the market.

 

In my research into Cornell Houston, I was offered Carmen's (his wife) telephone number a couple of times - that is not an action I'm willing to take.

 

The BSM was awarded for an exceptional act, the story between its award and ending up being displayed in a museum will no doubt be a difficult and uncomfortable one - but the medal is now in a solid position where it can be appreciated for what it is.

[bobgee]

I suspect that these medals were part of the huge Phila. QM Depot "scrap medal" dump/sale in the 1990s. It may have been bases on the omission of the "Sr" suffix as appears on his grave stone.. This might be confirmed by the family's medals. Good luck, Dave. Just my 2-cents. Bobgee

[CtahhR]

Wouldn't the awards have the name he served under? He wasn't Senior when he signed up.

The other BSMs from the same source (photographed) had no issue with engraving etc, they were just "naked".

I did track a recipient as mentioned. He confirmed it was his (as I sent images), so how can it be scrap and issued?

[Dave]

Wouldn't the awards have the name he served under? He wasn't Senior when he signed up.

The other BSMs from the same source (photographed) had no issue with engraving etc, they were just "naked".

I did track a recipient as mentioned. He confirmed it was his (as I sent images), so how can it be scrap and issued?

 

If he had an official name change, it would have been reflected on the medal. His name on the tombstone is with the "Sr", so my assumption is that there was an official name change. (It is the same idea as when a woman gets married...her maiden name would not be the name on an award, but whatever her current legal name was. I have one like that in my collection...married name, not maiden name.)

 

I've spent many hours trying to figure out why this Purple Heart is the way it is. The engraving is the standard Army style for those from the Vietnam War period...and had I come across his medal in a random box, my first thought would have been a casualty from several decades before Black Hawk Down. What's odd to me is that the Army (the entire DoD, actually) had switched over to a different font prior to this Purple Heart being awarded. I have either owned or photographed examples bracketing the award of this Purple Heart, and the font is the same on all of them. So my question becomes: why was this one different? Was it supposed to be this way? What I need to do in order to answer that question is to either get in touch with Mrs. Houston to see what she has as far as medals, or photograph those of another Black Hawk Down casualty...I've tried doing both and have thus far been unsuccessful.

 

I photographed this particular Purple Heart at the last SOS, and it was offered to me for a very reasonable price. Had I been fully comfortable with the engraving, I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat. However, the engraving on this medal goes into the "I don't know" category, and I passed. Let me caveat my statement by staying that the engraving definitely is NOT fake by any means. It's official government engraving. But it doesn't follow the same pattern that it should. Is that an impossibility? No, it certainly isn't. I have (either own or photographed) three very officially engraved Purple Hearts that were hand engraved to both WW2 and Korea casualties. Two of these "non regulation" engraved Purple Hearts came directly from families, and I am absolutely confident they are correct. But they are totally not in the right pattern for "official" government engraving at the time. Does that make them fake? By no means! It just adds a twist in what we know and pushes, at least ever so slightly, the edge of the envelope on what we understand as "dogma" as collectors.

 

Back to Houston's Purple Heart...in summary, I have no other Purple Hearts from this event to compare it to, and until I can add to our collective realm of knowledge by getting other data points (e.g. more photos of officially engraved Purple Hearts from Black Hawk Down) I can't say it's actually Houston's or not. This medal is definitely a "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"...if a buyer is comfortable with the engraving, and believes fully that this is definitely Houston's Purple Heart, I will not disagree with them at all. If I had unlimited money, I would still buy it just to have it as an example in my collection...and there's a likelihood that it's actually his...but I don't know for sure.

 

Bob has a very provocative theory in that the Houston Purple Heart is actually from scrap as well. Given that his "Sr" was left off makes sense that it was either returned or redone before presentation. I could easily see that happening. But once again...where was the engraving done? Official engraving of the time period should look like the Bronze Star...why is the Purple Heart different? Was it done on a gravograph machine found in an office at the Pentagon for a spur of the moment presentation? Maybe. There are many potential theories out there and...to put it simply...I wish I knew.

 

As for the Bronze Star, we are confident that it was scrap because that's what the eBay seller sells - and thus the reason the medals are "naked" - the medals are engraved, then placed on a ribbon drape. Ones that are scrapped are never placed on a drape, and thus, when they are released from the government, look like these do. Why was it that one of the medals you purchased a lost one from a veteran? It could be coincidence. Maybe he applied for one after his was lost and one was engraved and ended up in scrap. Maybe he said the medal was his because it had his name on it. (If someone called me and told me they found a medal, one I earned, and it had my name engraved on the reverse...I would definitely say it was mine, even though I never personally had it in my hands.)

 

So...a lot of theories and ideas. Like I said, I've invested a lot of time thinking and investigating this particular Purple Heart and I wish I had a solid answer for all of us about the engraving.

 

Dave

[Gary B]

As an FYI, and not sure if it is completely relevant to this thread, but when I was on the personal staffs (Protocol officer) of the CJCS and Sec Def we had an engraving machine in our "gift locker" (the place where all the gifts such as challenge coins, cuff links, tie clips etc were kept). One of the members of the staff was trained to use it and we engraved medals and plaques before presentation. Typically we engraved Commander grade Legion of Merits for presentation to the Sec Def/CJCS counterparts but also civilian DoD medals. If a mistake was made in the engraving process or if the award was not approved we would toss the award in the trash.

 

Perhaps this could account for the non typical engraving. I would assume the Dept of the Army gift locker also had an engraving machine. Perhaps this particular PH was engraved by the Army staff for presentation.

 

Gary B

[flytiger]

Read Bob Gees note again. I remember when the engraved medals dump happened and there were a ton of medals on the market soon after from that. I do not recall the font on them.