The Search for the Grunion Blog

Bruce abele@999info.net

Per United States Army regulations, the Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917, has been wounded or killed, or who has died after being wounded. Accordingly, every member of the crew of the USS Grunion should have received a Purple Heart.

They did not.

Back in December 2009 Dick and Mary Bentz spent a week at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis getting copies of the personnel records of the Grunion crew. That’s when they discovered that although the enlisted crew had received that medal, the officers had not. The Abele family had thought that their Purple Heart had been somehow misplaced and there had been an ongoing search for a number of years.

Almost immediately Mary notified the appropriate authority and was assured that the situation would be corrected.

In March 2010 nothing had happened so Mary went up one step in the hierarchy and this time was informed that even though she had provided them with proof, it would take three months to reprove that Purple Hearts had not been received by any of the officers. After that there would be a six-month wait while they determine whether the officers deserved Purple Heart even though all enlisted men on the Grunion had received them.

Next step, while at the Purple Heart Hall of Honor Mary discovered that in these types of situations you contact the Chief of Naval Operations. On her suggestion I wrote a letter to that individual. Within about three weeks we had the Purple Hearts.

It seems to me that when we ask our young men to fight and possibly die for our country, our country has an obligation and duty not to forget. Presenting the Purple Heart 68 years later turns out to be a form of that remembering. Unfortunately there are some people in responsible govermental positions who do not understand nor care about that responsibility