Army Sgt. Norman John Gressens died in the fall of 1950 of malnutrition and pnuemonia in a North Korean prison camp. His nephew is hoping to get a posthumous Purple Heart for the family.
(Courtesy of Charles Paul)That picture, later damaged in a house fire, and a box of letters are the only mementos Embery has of Edwards.
"Here was a man that was 22 years old, 17 when he began going to war for his country," Embery said. "And they didn't think enough of him to give him a Purple Heart."
The change from the Department of Defense's longstanding "burden of proof" policy on the Purple Heart stemmed from the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, in which Congress asked for a review of the eligibility criteria.
Eileen Lainez of the Defense Press Office said that after consulting with several military groups, the department agreed that the congressional request had merit. The department said the relatives of up to 17,000 deceased POWs could be eligible for Purple Hearts under the new regulations.
"This change reflects the feeling that these conditions and circumstances are difficult to document," she said of POWs who survive enemy capture but die later with little evidence as to the cause.
Retired Navy Cpt. Mike McGrath, a Vietnam POW who received his Purple Heart n the 1970s and is now the historian for the nonprofit NAM-POWs Corp., praised the change in policy but said the previous exclusions didn't make a lot of sense to begin with.
McGrath, who was tortured with ropes and beatings while imprisoned at the prison dubbed the "Hanoi Hilton" for nearly six years, said it's common sense to assume that the death of any American POW was caused in some way by the enemy.
And while the wording of the eligibility criteria boils down to an administrative decision, he said, the award itself means honor and pride for the families who never saw their loved ones again.
"I think families deserve that," McGrath, 69, said. "It doesn't make sense to deny them one, maybe to save some administrative paperwork."
The Purple Heart is the oldest military decoration still in use today. It was created by George Washington during the Revolutionary War, called the Badge of Military Merit at the time. The medals are awarded by the individual branches of the U.S. military.
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