Posted on: Sunday, August 8, 2004
Nation honors wounded soldiers
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
For Army Pfc. Chris Tenayuca, it was an enemy round that shattered his left elbow in Al Huwijah in northern Iraq on Feb. 10. For Pfc. Charles Turner, it was a German mortar fragment that ripped through his left knee during the Battle of the Bulge on Jan. 14, 1945.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser The occasion also marked the unveiling of a $6,000 India Red Granite monument as part of a nationwide observance of the country's combat wounded.
"As we gather here to dedicate this memorial, similar dedications are taking place all across our great nation, to recognize the sacrifices made by our nation's Purple Heart recipients," said the keynote speaker, retired Brigadier General Irwin Cockett Jr. — himself a veteran of two wars, Korea and Vietnam, and the recipient of four Purple Hearts.
The Korean War, 1950-1953, also known as the Forgotten War, was one of the bloodiest in U.S. history, killing about 36,000 Americans. Cockett was there from the start with Schofield's 5th Regimental Combat Team, and came out without a scratch.
"The Korean War was just hell," he said. "Then I served three tours flying helicopter gunships in Vietnam, and got hit four times."
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser "I was just lucky."
Donald Cook, who also survived Korea intact but took enemy mortar fragments in the face and arms in Vietnam in 1967, was — like other Purple Heart recipients — similarly stoic about his injuries. More vivid in his memory was the freezing cold that greeted the lifelong Hawai'i resident in Korea.
"It was the first time I'd ever seen snow," he said with a shiver.
A crowd of about 75 people listened attentively beneath an open-air tent as Cockett outlined the background of the decoration he called "the medal that no one tries to earn."
The Purple Heart — America's oldest military decoration — started out as the Military Badge of Merit, created Aug. 7, 1782, by Gen. George Washington. In time it disappeared from the military, but was revived by Executive Order on Feb. 22, 1932, Washington's 200th birthday.
Since the Revolutionary War, more than 1.5 million Purple Hearts have been awarded to United States service members, said Turner, who serves as adjutant of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Department of Hawai'i. Turner is keeper of the statistics regarding Island Purple Heart recipients.
According to him, the Territory of Hawai'i received the most Purple Hearts per capita during World War II.
"Thousands more — we don't know how many — were added during the Korean and Vietnam wars, as well as the Gulf and Iraq war," said Turner, who returned to combat after he was hospitalized in 1945, and served out the war.
One of the most recent Purple Heart recipients is Army Spc. Anthony Sullivan, 24. The infantryman with Schofield's "Wolfhounds" was shot in the face in a gunfight April 7 near Kirkuk.
"My section got ambushed and I took one bullet, and it went in my right cheek, through the roof of my mouth, and blew out the left side of my head," Sullivan said matter-of-factly. "I've had my left jawbone rebuilt along my skull and temple, and I've lost the hearing in my left ear."
After a pause, he said he'd like to be redeployed to Iraq.
"I'm trying to go back," he explained. "I like my job."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Tenayuca, 21, and Turner, 81, were among the wounded soldiers from five wars honored at yesterday's Purple Heart Recognition Day ceremonies under overcast skies and periodic drizzle at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery in Kane'ohe.
Boy Scouts Bryce Yoshida, left, of Troop 216 and Daniel Lum of Troop 117 unveil the Purple Heart Memorial Monument before monument director Bob Freitas at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery.
Cockett said he couldn't recall the specific dates or circumstances of his wounds. How does he figure he survived it?
The Joint Services Color Guard marches past the Purple Heart Memorial at the veterans cemetery in Kane'ohe, unveiled yesterday as part of "Purple Heart Recognition Day" proclaimed by Gov. Linda Lingle.
