Purple Heart Appreciation Day

Commemorate the 234rd anniversary of General Washington’s order creating the Badge of Military Merit, predecessor for the modern Purple Heart. This year our program will commemorate Purple Heart recipients who were non-combatants. Many chaplains, corpsmen, medics, nurses, doctors and military victims of terrorist attacks have earned this award, and we will share some of their stories of sacrifice. Among these recipients are Beatrice MacDonald, a World War I Army nurse, the first known woman to be awarded a Purple Heart and Korean War Medal of Honor recipient Chaplain Emil Kapaun.