Heart Transplant Saves Ailing Iraq War Veteran
Iraq War veteran Keith McCarter felt something was off in 2010, about a year after he left the Army. It was a feeling that most healthy 25-year-olds never have to experience. “I started to feel super weak and was not eating,” McCarter said. “Come to find out, I was in end-stage heart failure.” He needed […]
100-Year-Old Veteran Kept Jewish Prayer Book over His Heart as He Confronted the Holocaust
This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter. This Reflection was written by Jesse Schraub, who turns 101 this month, with the help of his three daughters, Alice Kinsler, Ellen Gang, and Laura Siegel. In 1943, I was drafted into the military at […]
LA Army Veteran with Purple Heart Self-Deports to South Korea Under Threat of Deportation
An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple Heart self-deported to South Korea last week as he was threatened with being detained and deported by federal immigration forces. On Monday, veteran Sae Joon Park, who legally immigrated from South Korea when he was seven years old, grew up in […]
Army Veteran Caught Faking Severe PTSD, Purple Heart Award to Steal $779,000, Feds Say
A U.S. Army veteran stole more than $779,000 in government disability benefits by pretending to have severe PTSD in a scheme that involved him lying about receiving a Purple Heart award, federal prosecutors said. Kevin Paul McMains, 44, of Milton, Florida, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for theft of government […]
Purple Heart Medal’s Owner Identified as ‘a Man’s Man’ Who Fought in WWII
In the final push to defeat Nazi Germany during World War II, Edward Gorski Jr. was trying to shield himself inside a foxhole when the 19-year-old Chicagoan was struck by enemy fire. Gorski, a broad-shouldered Army private with a rugged face, was hit with mortar shrapnel after a fellow soldier in a nearby trench lit […]
‘I Wasn’t Afraid to Die. I Was a Soldier’: Veteran Asks Heart Surgeon to Save Sentimental Tattoo During Transplant
Before his heart transplant, Louis Smith was prepared for death. In Saudi Arabia right after the Gulf War, the 66-year-old veteran helped lead a missile platoon that guarded aircraft. He served his country for more than two decades in the Middle East, South Korea and Europe. “I wasn’t afraid to die. I was a soldier,” […]
Army Will Present Purple Heart to Minnesota Veteran 73 Years After He Was Wounded in Korean War
ST. PAUL, Minn. — After 73 years and a long fight with the U.S. Army, a Korean War veteran from Minnesota who was wounded in combat was set to finally get his Purple Heart medal on Friday. The Army notified Earl Meyer, 96, of St. Peter, last month that it had granted him a Purple […]
WWII Soldiers Posthumously Receive Purple Heart Medals 79 Years After Fatal Plane Crash
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — The families of five Hawaii men who served in a unit of Japanese-language linguists during World War II received posthumous Purple Heart medals on behalf of their loved ones on Friday, nearly eight decades after the soldiers died in a plane crash in the final days of the conflict. “I […]
US Military to Screen All New Recruits for Heart Conditions Under Must-Pass Annual Defense Bill
Beginning next year, the U.S. military is expected to screen all potential recruits for cardiac anomalies under a new program designed to reduce deaths at boot camp and beyond. The current version of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, expected to pass Congress this month, requires the Defense Department to launch a pilot program […]
Korean War Veteran, 96, Still Attempting to Get Purple Heart Medal After 7 Decades
ST. PETER, Minn. — Earl Meyer remembers in vivid detail when his platoon came under heavy fire during the Korean War — he still has shrapnel embedded in his thigh. But over 70 years later, the 96-year-old is still waiting for the U.S. Army to recognize his injury and to award him a Purple Heart […]