Purple Heart Day on August 7th is one of our lesser-known days of national observance. On this day we honor U.S. service members who have been physically wounded or killed in combat. This day also commemorates the creation of one of our very first and enduring military decorations, the Purple Heart medal devised by George Washington in 1782 originally called the “Badge of Military Merit.”
Commander-in-Chief Washington established this badge of honor because he was “ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers. . .” The General Order he issued stated that “whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding.”
Only three individuals are known to have received the Badge of Military Merit during the American Revolution – Sergeant William Brown of the 5th Connecticut Regiment of the Connecticut Line, Sergeant Elijah Churchill of the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons and Sergeant Daniel Bissell of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of the Connecticut Line. With this order, Washington established a policy of formal recognition of the heroic contributions of enlisted soldiers, rather than the British practice of just recognizing officers.
The decoration designed by our first Commander in Chief was later replaced in World War One with a single “wound stipe” consisting of a gold chevron worn on the left sleeve signifying a soldier had been wounded or gassed in battle. Washington’s Badge of Military Merit was subsequently redesigned and re-commissioned in 1932 by then Army Chief of Staff General Douglas McArthur in honor of George Washington’s bicentennial birthday. Now known formally as the Purple Heart Medal – it is America’s oldest military decoration.
A presidential order signed in 1942 permitted the Purple Medal to be awarded to all branches of the military to include the United States Coast Guard which was mobilized to fight U-Boats off our coast, escort convoys and participated in all Allied amphibious landings. In anticipation of America’s planned invasion of the Japanese home islands prior to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki thousands of Purple Hearts were manufactured but fortunately not issued. It is only recently that the stock of these legacy medals produced in anticipation of mass American casualties have been expended.
The Purple Heart is awarded only for physical wounds and despite recent attempts to change the criteria to include Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome or PTSD. Unfortunately, the regulations governing its award remain unchanged even though today’s combat veterans have a markedly higher rate of suicide that their civilian counterparts.
On Purple Heart Day let us honor those American servicemen and women who bear the physical and emotional scars of war as a downpayment for the freedoms we enjoy today. Unfortunately many take that freedom today for granted but those that wear the decoration that no one wants to receive would strongly beg to differ.
