Today is Purple Heart Day, honoring all those American soldiers who have received America’s oldest military honor after being wounded or killed in combat.
George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit on August 7, 1782, in the shape of a purple heart. The award fell out of use after the Revolutionary War, but after WWI, in 1932, then-Army Chief-of-staff Douglas MacArthur re-established the award in the same shape, but with Washington’s face on it, and called it the Purple Heart.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his assistant and spokesman Sean Parnell, a Purple Heart recipient, praised all awardees in their video statement. Parnell said, “A grateful nation never forgets its heroes, its triumphs, or its pain. Recipients of the Purple Heart award put their bodies and souls on the line for this great country. During those quiet moments when the flag waves at half mast, we remember not just the medals pinned to their chests, but the scars etched into their stories.”
He lauded his fellow awardees as “the best among us, because they inspire the best within us. And so on this Purple Heart Day, we honor them, not with empty words, but with a promise to build a nation worthy of their sacrifice, where every citizen stands a little taller because they showed us how. So take a moment to thank a veteran, fly the flag, or simply pause in gratitude.”
Read about the WWII “Purple Heart Battalion”!
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Author: Catherine Salgado
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