Purple Heart reunites family

The Associated Press tells the story of how our buddy, Zach Fike who founded Purple Hearts Reunited, an organization that returns medals to families, set out to reunited a Purple Heart with a family and ended up reuniting families who had never met. The story centers around Eugene Victor Call, a soldier from New Hampshire, who was killed during the Battle of the Bulge while he was assigned to the 2nd Platoon, Company C, 643rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, 83rd Infantry Division. His Purple Heart made it to his widow, who then passed the medal on to her daughter. When the daughter died, her widower contacted Zach to get the medal back to Call’s family.

The search led to a namesake great-nephew in Newport, New Hampshire, and to grandchildren in California.

Ceremonies honoring Call are planned in Newport on Monday and California on Thursday.

In Newport, Eugene Victor Call Jr., 49, knew he had a great-uncle who died in the service.

“I knew I was named after him, but other than that, nobody really said too much,” said Call, a truck driver. His father also had the same name.

One thing he didn’t know was that his great-uncle had a young son who was taken to California at 8. That son, David Eugene, lost contact with the family and died in 2004. He left three sons and a daughter.

Category: War Stories