PFC William Peters gets his Purple Heart

Someone sent us a link to the story of Private First Class William Peters who was awarded a Purple Heart just 70 years after his wounds;

While on a mission in France in November 1944, his platoon was ambushed by a German army contingent.

He was seriously injured and unable to walk after being hit with shrapnel and being briefly pinned between an armored car and an exploding jeep. His troop retreated under fire and in pain and shock he crawled to sit by a nearby tree.

He observed a German machine gun nest perched on a hill over him in full view. In sporadic periods of consciousness during the remainder of the day he prayed knowing they could kill him at any time.

Eventually, the Germans left without discovering PFC Peters and he regained consciousness strapped to the hood of a jeep on a journey across France that eventually took him home to Indiana and his disability discharge in 1946. He was awarded the Purple Heart by the local VFW post commander in Greensburg, Indiana a few days ago.

Category: Real Soldiers