Korean War veteran from Minnesota will finally get his Purple Heart medal, 73 years late

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Korean War veteran from Minnesota who still carries shrapnel in his leg from when he was wounded in combat will finally get his Purple Heart medal, 73 years late.

The U.S. Army notified Earl Meyer, 96, of St. Peter, on Monday that it has reversed itself and granted him a Purple Heart, which honors service members wounded or killed in combat.

The decision came after a campaign by his daughters and attorney. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota championed his cause. The Army’s top noncommissioned officer — the sergeant major of the army — took an interest in the case after it had been rejected for years due to a lack of paperwork. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim this year ordered an Army review board to take another look.

The Army sent Meyer’s attorney a stack of documents Monday to notify them of the decision, including a certificate in color saying it was “for wounds received in action on June 1951 in Korea.”

“Seventy-three years, yeah. That’s a long time all right.… I didn’t think they would go for it,” Meyer said in an interview Tuesday.

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