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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jim Dale, post: 8231967, member: 100459&quot;]I&#039;m sure you folks have your reasons for not buying the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor coins.&nbsp; I can respect that.&nbsp; However, I have my reasons for buying them.</p><p>My father was born in 1925 and was 16 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He had dropped out of school to join the Navy.&nbsp; He became a corpsman (medic) when he was 17 and served on a submarine throughout the wars. During his time in the submarine, he was the doctor, dentist, and priest.&nbsp; During his second time out, the submarine was caught on top of the water, when a Japanese cruiser saw the sub. His best friend was manning the &quot;Deck gun&quot; when he was hit.&nbsp; My Dad is/was 5&#039;7&quot;.&nbsp; He went on deck to pull his friend off the gun and get him below deck.&nbsp; Although he didn&#039;t get a Medal of Honor, he was awarded the Navy Cross and his first Purple Heart.&nbsp; He got hit while taking his best friend below.&nbsp; Once below, he treated his best friend.&nbsp; Afterwards, he took care of himself.&nbsp; </p><p>He also served with the Marine Corps during the Korean War.&nbsp; They were under heavy fire.&nbsp; He ended up helping several men behind the lines.&nbsp; On his second trip bringing a man back, he got hit, but he went back and forth and then treating the wounded. He got his second Purple Heart and a Silver Star.</p><p>After the Korean War was over, my Mom told my Dad that she had grown tired of hi playing Navy.&nbsp; When he got out, he worked for RCA records, making 45rpm records, but he got tired of it and tried to get back into the Navy, but they weren&#039;t recruiting corpsman, so he went to the Army Recruiter and enlisted in 1952 with a wife and 2 kids.&nbsp; He was trained to do EKGs and EEGs which were safe for my Mom. (By the way, I was named after my father&#039;s best friend that he had rescued off the deck during WW2. (His name was James William Holloway.&nbsp; I am James William D.)</p><p>Many tours later, he went back to war in Viet Nam. While there, they were under fire. One of his men were hit and he went out to bring him back and then he got hit getting his man to safety...Third Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.&nbsp; While my Dad was their, my&nbsp; brother was on a ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. One of his men was hit by a missile and when he went to get him from their turret, my brother got hit and got a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.&nbsp; In May, 1968, I got drafted, taking Basic at Fort Bragg, NC, then Fort Dix, NJ, and Jump School at Fort Benning, Georgia.&nbsp; I then went to Fort Bragg, NC.&nbsp; I was in the 82nd Airborne Division during the time my father and brother were in Viet Nam, and due to the Sullivan Act, I did not have to go to Viet Nam.&nbsp; Besides that, the Brigade Commander served with my father at one time or another.&nbsp; He found out I could type, so I spent my army career in the Staff Judge Advocates Office as a Court Reporter.&nbsp; Luckily, i never got to see war.&nbsp; The only wound I got were paper cuts.</p><p>Sorry for the length of my story.&nbsp; My Dad got 3 Purple Hearts and my brother got 1.&nbsp; I did get the &quot;Good Conduct Medal&quot;.</p><p>I have already signed up for the Purple Heart Proof Silver &amp; Gold Coins/Medals.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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