National Purple Heart day,,,

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Nebe

My grandfather received one in ww2. He was a Captain in the marines in the South Pacific. After Guadalcanal, narrowly escaping death in the lagoon of tarawa, he was blown to bits in Saipan while marching behind a Sherman tank. Apparently there was a Japanese soldier in the top of the smoke stack of the sugar factory that was calling in artillery strikes and he spotted the tank my grandfather was behind and attempted to take it out. He almost lost his leg and an arm and miraculously a medic was able to apply tourniquets and he was evacuated to a hospital ship, then brought to Hawaii, then put on a train across the USA to recover at the Naval hospital in Newport. He lost all feeling in his left hand and other than that, healed up perfectly.
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