Mishawaka double Purple Heart recipient receives medal replacement
Reed was previously awarded with the medals, but both were kept in a safe that was later stolen
MISHAWAKA, Ind. (WNDU) - A Mishawaka Marine once again has two Purple Hearts to show for the time he spent in Vietnam.
Allen Reed was twice shot and wounded while serving there in 1967.
Reed was previously awarded two Purple Hearts, but both were kept in a safe that was later stolen.
One of the medals was previously replaced, while the final replacement was pinned on Reed by U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym today in a brief ceremony in Yakym’s Mishawaka office. “You have a country that’s grateful for you and grateful for your service,” Rep. Yakym told Reed today. “After he was shot once, he went back to fighting alongside his brothers in war. After he was shot again, he wanted to go back to continue fighting, but the military wouldn’t let him.”
“That night I got hit the first time, we had 1,100 incoming rounds—mortars, rockets, and it blew, blew the hell out of us,” Reed explained.
Reed said he spent 76 days in the intensive care unit of a hospital ship and two months in the ambulatory ward before he headed back to the battlefield, where he was shot again.
“I got shot, went in right here,” Reed said while pointing to the right side of his upper chest. “Collapsed my lung. Then I got hit, shot me back here and back here in the hip and then the buttocks.”
On one hand, it took a long time for Reed to receive his second replacement medal, but on the other hand, it arrived just in time.
“Today’s Marine Corps’ birthday. Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and I’m going to be wearing both of these medals, proud as a peacock, for both them days. I only wear them twice a year,” said Reed. “Today and tomorrow, Marine Corps’ birthday and Veterans Day. Those are the only days I wear them.”
Reed was first shot on April 27, 1967, and shot again Oct. 27—six months later to the day.
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