Ever since 1917, any American service member killed or wounded in action has been awarded with the Purple Heart, a medal intended to show the nation’s gratitude for the sacrifice he or she made in service to the country.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has personal reasons for signing onto a bill working its way through the United States Senate that would make it a crime to sell a deceased or wounded soldier’s Purple Heart.
“My father is a Purple Heart recipient, and that’s important to me,” said Capito.
Capito is among senators pushing for passage of the Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart Preservation Act. Introduced in March by U.S. Sen. David Perdue, the legislation would make it illegal for a merchant, pawnbroker or auctioneer to sell a veteran’s Purple Heart medal without permission. Those who support the bill hope it would discourage merchants who obtain second-hand Purple Heart medals from selling them and encourage them to to find the medals’ rightful owners or heirs.
“We could never truly repay the sacrifice countless servicemen and women have made to keep Americans safe and free, but the Purple Heart is a way to recognize and honor that sacrifice,” Capito said. “The Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart Preservation Act will help protect these hard-won medals and prevent them from being improperly sold for profit. I am proud to join Sen. Perdue’s effort to preserve these important symbols of sacrifice in the line of service.”
Capito’s father, former Congressman and West Virginia Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr., was a sergeant serving in the Army’s 84th Infantry Division when he was shot in the face in Germany on Nov. 20, 1944.
“It was a pretty severe injury,” Capito said. “It was right through his jaw. It’s amazing that in later years he was able to give those great speeches that he did.”
Capito said the medal remains an important memento for the family.
Piccoli was a U.S. Army private assigned to the 45th Infantry Division. He went missing in the village of Fremifontaine, France, in October 1944 and was later listed as killed in action.
Pioccoli’s Purple Heart was passed on to his family, but became lost over the years. It was eventually found and returned to Piccoli’s family by Zachariah Fike, a Captain in the Vermont Army National Guard.
Fike, who received the Purple Heart for wounds received in Afghanistan in 2010, founded Purple Hearts Reunited to track down lost and stolen Purple Heart medals and return them to their rightful owners.
“What a surprise it was when Zac called to tell us that he had my brother’s Purple Heart Medal,” Piccoli’s sister, Adeline Piccoli Rockko told the Watertown Daily Times newspaper in New York after the medal was returned. “There were six remaining siblings and when our parents passed on, we shared possesion of the medal. Somehow, it became lost and it was found again by Zac’s mother, who gifted it to him as a Christmas present. When he held this medal, Zac had an urgency to return it to us and he embarked on a mission that would lead him to the good work he is doing today.
“For us, the return of the medal was a blessing,” Rockko said. “Zac’s intense drive to find my brother Corrado’s family led him to search Corrado’s life. Zac gave us a complete history of Corrado’s military service and obtained all the other medals and citations he had earned and we were unaware of.”
The Purple Heart is a gold heart bearing the likeness of George Washington on a purple enameled background. Unmarked duplicates of the award are sold legitimately every day, but a Purple Heart that has been awarded to a soldier wounded or killed in action will have the soldier’s name engraved on the back. It is these medals the proposed federal legislation seeks to protect.
“The Purple Heart is a unique medal, awarded exclusively to servicemembers who are wounded or killed in combat against the enemy,” said Hershel Gober, national commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, an organization of Purple Heart recipients.
“For those who pay the ultimate sacrifice, the Purple Heart is often the last tangible item their family receives in their memory. In cases where Purple Hearts are lost or stolen, we believe every effort should made to return those medals to their rightful owners,” he said. “Unfortunately, certain military memorabilia dealers are selling military-issued Purple Hearts on the secondary market at exorbitant prices, making it harder to reunite veterans and families with lost or stolen medals.
“Due to the morbid curiosity of some collectors, medals engraved with the names of those killed in action command the highest prices,” Gober said.
West Virginia’s Purple Heart organization also supports the bill.
“We support this legislation that prevents the profiteering off of the sacrifices of wounded combat veterans,” said Charlie Baisden, department commander of the state department of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
How often are engraved Purple Heart medals lost or stolen? “It’s a bigger problem than you would think,” Capito said.
In May 2015, Charleston resident Sally Jarrett was going through a box of junk she’d bought at a flea market when she found a Purple Heart medal engraved with the name of Waldo R. Williamson. After doing a little research, Jarrett went to her local newspaper to try to find anyone who might be related to Williamson.
Williamson, a sailor in the U.S. Navy, is presumed to have gone down on the destroyer U.S.S. Edsall in 1942 in the frenzied early months of the Pacific War. He was first declared missing, then listed as killed in action and posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
The medal was among the few things Waldo Williamson’s family had to remember him by, but it went missing in 1972, Williamson’s sister, Jeanette Wright, told the Sunday Gazette-Mail newspaper.
Wright said the Purple Heart was either lost or stolen from the family’s Lincoln County homeplace.
“Both of my brothers, as soon as they were 18, joined the service,” said Wright, who was 11 when Williamson died. Waldo Williamson was just 21.
Wright saw Jarrett’s article in the newspaper, contacted her, and was able to get Williamson’s Purple Heart back.
“It’s been gone for over 40 years,” Wright told the newspaper.
“We think it’s a miracle,” Wright said after receiving the long-lost medal. “I’ve longed for it over the years. It just brings me joy.”
Capito said a Purple Heart may be the only item family members have to remember a fallen relative by,, which is why it’s important to do everything possible to encourage reuniting lost or stolen medals with their recipients or their families.