Today is Purple Heart Day, a time to honor and remember our brave soldiers who were either wounded on the battlefield or paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.
Shannon MacNeil sits down with U.S. Navy veteran, Jim Anderson, to learn about the significance of his Purple Heart.
Anderson is originally from Sonoma County California. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1970 with three and a half years in-country, or off the coast of Vietnam.
“While in-country I was assigned to Navel Support I-Corps Danang from March 1968 to March 1969,” Anderson explains. “While patrolling the Cua Viet River, in a patrol boat, the night of August 24, 1968, my boat hit a mine, sinking the boat. Of the six member of my crew, four navy and two marines, no one was lost that evening. Four of us were blown off the boat and had to swam from the boat as it sunk. I was awarded the Purple Heart in September of 1968 for injuries being blown off the boat. The rest of the crew were not injured. I found out that one of the marines was killed in action several months later.”
Anderson is currently the Department Finance Officer for the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
