Chet Edwards For Congress

June 1, 2007

A heart of honor

Bryan man waits 63 years for combat medal

Bryan-College Station Eagle

By JANET PHELPS |Eagle Staff Writer

Perry Shirley waited nearly 63 years to receive a Purple Heart medal he earned during World War II.

Shirley was injured twice in less than two months while serving in the U.S. Army as a teenager in 1945. His first Purple Heart was shipped to him in 1945 while he was recovering at a U.S. hospital.

The second one came Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, presented Shirley with the medal at a brief ceremony with his family and fellow veterans at the Veterans Affairs clinic in College Station.

Shirley, 82, said he was first injured Nov. 21, 1944, as his unit was building a bridge by the light of a French town the Germans had set on fire the day before. The Germans attacked, and Shirley was taken to a field hospital with minor injuries to his jaw and shoulder.

He spent Thanksgiving in the hospital and returned to his unit just before Christmas.

A few weeks later, Shirley was injured again, this time more seriously.

Shirley was in a convoy of eight men escorting a soldier who had gone absent without leave to a court-martial when Germans attacked with a commandeered U.S. plane.

Four of the soldiers were killed and two, Shirley and the AWOL soldier, were seriously injured.

This time, Shirley's injuries sent him to a field hospital and then back to the U.S. suffering nerve damage, a missing toe and injuries to his jugular vein, arm, knee and eye.

Shirley was released on a medical discharge July 2, 1945, and arrived home in Bryan to find a Purple Heart among his belongings that had been sent back from Europe.

"I don't remember how it got there," he said, adding he never knew for which injury he had received the first Purple Heart.

But the confusion was cleared up when Shirley learned Edwards would present a Purple Heart for the injury he suffered while building the bridge.

Shirley said he feels pain "all over" from his injuries every day.

"You can't describe those type of injuries," he said. "You just don't get around like you used to."

Shirley and his wife of 50 years, Delores, said they were thankful to receive the award.

"I appreciate Mr. Shirley waiting 63 years, because if the Department of Defense had given this 63 years ago, I wouldn't have been around," the 55-year-old Edwards joked.

Edwards used the event to announce a bill that he wrote that allocates more than $6 billion to Veterans Affairs. The bill, which Edwards said represents the largest increase in VA funding in the department's 77-year history, passed the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee, which Edwards leads, on Tuesday.

"We owe you a debt of gratitude," Edwards told the veterans gathered for the ceremony. "It's the incredible sacrifice of ordinary citizens that has kept our nation free."

About the Purple Heart:

The Purple Heart is awarded to U.S. soldiers killed or wounded at the hands of the enemy. It is specifically a combat decoration.

• •History: The original Purple Heart, designated as the Badge of the Military Merit, was established by Gen. George Washington in 1782. Three of his noncommissioned officers were the first to receive the honor. Washington directed the award be heart-shaped and made from purple material.
• Expansion: The medal was not awarded again until after World War I. In 1942, President Roosevelt ordered that the medal be extended to the Navy, Marine Corps and the Coast Guard after the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1962, civilians were included among those eligible for the medal.
• Recently: From July 1958 to March 2003, approximately 235,000 Purple Hearts were awarded, according to the Military Awards Branch.