HISTORY LESSONS: The Purple Badge of Courage
Given the long odds his ragtag Continental Army faced in trying to defeat the mightiest military machine in the world in 1776, and the courage needed in the face of those odds, America’s commander-in-chief, George Washington, thought that extraordinary courage should be honored with a medal, which he created this week (Aug. 7) in 1782. Called the “Badge for Military Merit,” the medal consisted of a purple heart-shaped piece of cloth that had a narrow strip of silver around its edges and the word “Merit” stitched across its face. A “singularly meritorious action” was the criteria for earning this badge of courage, which, among other privileges, allowed its bearer to pass through army checkpoints without being challenged. The recipient also had his name and his regiment inscribed in a “Book of Merit.”
Apparently, Washington had a rather strict definition of “singularly meritorious action,” because only three of these military merit medals were awarded during the entire Revolutionary War, and after the war ended the medal was mostly forgotten and the Book of Merit was lost.
After World War I, however, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Summerall attempted to reinstate the Badge of Military Merit as a way to honor both those who had been wounded in WWI and those who would be wounded in future wars. Although his campaign failed, the man who succeeded him as chief of staff, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, revived the campaign in 1931, noting that in February of the following year America would be celebrating George Washington’s 200th birthday. What better memorial to our greatest military commander than the reinstatement of his military medal?
MacArthur’s campaign succeeded, and on Washington’s birthday in 1932 the U.S. War Department announced the creation of “The Order of the Purple Heart,” which included Washington’s original purple cloth design but added Washington’s coat-of-arms and a profile of him, in uniform, inside of a heart-shaped medal. Today the Purple Heart is awarded to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are killed or wounded in action against an enemy, or who have suffered maltreatment as prisoners of war.
Over the years more than 1.5 million Purple Hearts have been awarded, with just over 500,000 of those recipients still living. The most Purple Hearts ever awarded to a single person is eight, and six men share that distinction, including the prominent journalist David Hackworth, whose essays in Newsweek magazine and newspaper columns on military matters were must reading for many thousands of students of war, including this writer. Fighting in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, Hackworth earned more than 90 military-related decorations, including 10 Silver Stars, two Distinguished Service Crosses and eight Purple Hearts.
When David Hackworth opined on military matters, people listened.