Working as a Veterans Service Officer I get to talk to a lot of interesting people. There is rarely a boring day here. I could spend most of my days listening to the stories of the veterans who I talk to on a daily basis. I find military history a very interesting subject and there are still a great many veterans around who participated and lived through some of the most historic battles and campaigns of the 20th century. I also work with a number of widows and family members of veterans who have passed away and one of the more common questions I encounter is how can a veteran obtain a medal that they think they are deserving of but never received during their time in the service, and how can I get a Purple Heart for my family member that passed away.

Contrary to what many people may think, the VA does NOT have the authority to grant military medals to veterans. All military awards and decorations are Department of Defense awards and must be granted by the Board of Military Corrections. It’s not a very quick and easy process to do because each individual application that gets sent to the Board of Corrections is considered based on the individual circumstances of that individual, thus the process is anything but fast.

When I talk to a deceased veteran’s family to help them get a medal I always tell them that I can’t promise them the results that they want, but I can help put together an application that will give the best chances to succeed. As one might think, the Department of Defense can be a bit stingy about giving out medals after a significant amount of time, as they should be. But they do it to protect the integrity of the award. To ensure that if they award someone a medal that they truly deserve it. The DoD and the Dept. of VA doesn’t put much stock into what we as veterans say, they operate based on documented facts and records, so the first thing to do when requesting an award or decoration is to obtain a copy of the veteran’s service records which can be done through the National Archives in St. Louis. When you get those you will hopefully find some kind of documented evidence of the event for which you are requesting an award, but you’re not done yet. Once you have some documentation of an event you need to get the actual application, which is a DD Form 149 which can be found by typing that form number into Google.

For veterans that are still alive you will basically follow the same steps. You need to obtain military medical records and service records and hopefully find some documentation of the event. A veteran can also write a personal statement detailing exactly what happened and when it happened. The Board of Corrections does its due diligence in investigating these claims but without specific information it is very difficult to find enough information to award a medal. If you are able to remember some of your buddies from the military it can also be helpful to have sworn statements written by people that were with you. Evidence like this alone is not enough for the Board of Corrections to award a medal but that sort of information can be helpful.

I think most veterans know of the big fire that occurred at the National Archives in 1973 so there is the possibility that WWII and Korean veterans have no service records there, but that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Another handy source to find records of being injured or taking place in a certain campaign is to get copies of individual unit records. If you can remember what unit you were in and the location of an incident you can often times track down each unit’s daily logs or casualty reports.

This is a very quick reference as to how to go about being awarded a medal or decoration for veterans that served in the past but were never given the recognition that they may deserve. The best advice I can give since I’m quickly running out of space is to meet with a veteran’s service officer who can help track down the required evidence to help you get an award that you were never given.