Williamsburg Yorktown Daily: Local Williamsburg Veteran Honored at National Purple Heart Ceremony
By Dominic Catacora
October 13, 2021
WILLIAMSBURG — The men and women who receive the Purple Heart medal have witnessed the horrors of war. All of them bring home vivid stories of heroism, and, most of the time, they’ll have battle scars to back those stories up.
The medal gets its name from its unique shape and color. It’s a purple heart within a gold color border. Within the purple is a bust of George Washington because he was the one who came up with the idea of creating a medal called, “the Badge of Military Merit”. Above Washington’s head is Washington’s family crest. The medal was developed into its current state by General MacArthur in 1932. It’s the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members, but to this day it still holds three words “for military merit” on the back.