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Documents to a civilian awarded the Purple Heart...


Pete-o MSU
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I bought these on an auction site, where the main focus was a Filthy Thirteen Purple Heart (still waiting for it to be posted here by the winner). I have yet to encounter a Purple Heart awarded to a civilian. Does anyone on the forum have one? From basic internet research I found that Guy F Powell was a civilian attached to the army in the Philippines who was killed at Fort Mills. Interesting the medal was awarded in 1950.

 

Pete

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Great question. The first person who jumped in my head was Ernie Pyle. I was not sure if he received a PH, but in fact he did for dying in Okinawa. This quote is on Wikipedia.

 

The Ernie Pyle State Historic Site in Dana includes Pyle's boyhood farmhouse, fully restored. The site also features a World War II-era Quonset hut containing many of Pyle's army artifacts (including his Purple Heart), plus items donated by the people of the community.

 

He was a sailor in WWI, but I don't believe he was in the army during WWII. Maybe someone else can confirm this.

 

S

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I had a civilian Purple Heart to an RCA representative attached to the AAF who was KIA on a bombing mission,

 

Kurt

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  • 4 years later...

I wanted to bring this back up as after I saw this post and did some research in all the PH references I currently have they only list about 100 were awarded to civilians. I would say that makes it about the rarest group of awardees of the purple heart. I have never seen the documents or an engraved PH to a civilian before. Does anyone have any others to post? I would also be interested if anyone has any other information on Guy Powell as i couldn't find anything else online than what was posted.

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Great question. The first person who jumped in my head was Ernie Pyle. I was not sure if he received a PH, but in fact he did for dying in Okinawa. This quote is on Wikipedia.

 

The Ernie Pyle State Historic Site in Dana includes Pyle's boyhood farmhouse, fully restored. The site also features a World War II-era Quonset hut containing many of Pyle's army artifacts (including his Purple Heart), plus items donated by the people of the community.

 

He was a sailor in WWI, but I don't believe he was in the army during WWII. Maybe someone else can confirm this.

 

S

The Ernie Pyle PH was awarded in the mid 1980's, I'm thinking 1985. It happened during "Ernie Pyle Days" in Dana, IN. I was there.

BKW

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I have a set of documents for a Purple Heart awarded to a civilian, also from the Philippines.

 

The only WW2 civilian medal I've seen is the one that Kurt refers to in his earlier post (it's in my book, actually).

 

I do own a Purple Heart awarded to a civilian who was killed in 1995.

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Dave, I was hoping you might have one for the book. Since I have never seen one I would assume they were all engraved the same as the branch of service of the time. In For Military Merit by Fred Borch it states some were submitted for civilians by the Navy so I would love to see one of those if they are out in a collection. I wonder why it took until the 80's for the issue of Ernie Pyles?

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I found this on Newspapers.com from the Cumberland Evening Times, Cumberland MD., 3 Feb 1942

 

That purple heart documentation is really cool and that is a neat news artical to go with it.

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Everyone,

 

Thanks for the feedback and information. I have made an offer to add this group to my collection. Hopefully some day the medal will appear.

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