A medal for Mr. Huschle

Posted at 12:10 PM on January 14, 2013 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: War

Seventy years is a heck of a long time to wait for a medal you deserved from the U.S. military.

Lawrence Huschle of St. Cloud never got his Purple Heart. He's a World War II veteran whose B-17 (he was a gunner) was shot down. He survived the crash and was held as a POW for two years.

Why didn't he get the medal?

"The requirement for the Purple Heart is to be wounded in action against an enemy of the United States," Maj. Gen. Jerry Lang told the St. Cloud Times. "Bailing out of a shot-down aircraft qualifies for that, however, the other requirement ... is there has to be proof of medical attention from the United States government."

Mr. Huschle got his medal yesterday, after his family worked far harder than they should have had to to help him get it.

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Comments (1)

It really is crappy how bad the army's records are...I just found out a couple of weeks ago that my dad lost sight in one eye in WWII and never got any benefit or anything in return. There were no records. Are no records. We are only now finding out my Dad's experiences in the army, thanks to a project of the Martin County Historical Society creating video interviews. He will be 89 in a couple of weeks, better late than never.

Posted by Bonnie | January 14, 2013 2:46 PM

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