Over half a century after a bullet left him partially paralyzed while serving in Vietnam, Marine veteran Private First Class James Ohlheiser has been awarded the Purple Heart Medal. The recognition, some would argue long overdue, corrects a clerical oversight that had left his sacrifice officially unacknowledged for 56 years. The ceremony, held on Veterans Day, was a poignant reminder of the often bureaucratic nature of military valor recognitions, as reported by
KFOR
,
According to the
KFOR
, Ohlheiser, then just 19 years old, “was shot in the head while fighting overseas” in September 1968 and subsequently spent over a year in the hospital. It was during his convalescence that the military retired him, failing to include the Purple Heart among his merits on the discharge paperwork.
In an interview with
The Norman Transcript
, Michael Russell, an administrator for Norman Veterans Home, highlighted the clerical error on Ohlheiser’s DD 214, the Department of Defense form that summarizes a service member’s military career. The important checkboxes for the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and most notably, the Purple Heart, were left unmarked. Russell, along with Victor Duffy, a veterans service officer, and Senator James Lankford’s office, were instrumental in the endeavor to correct the record.
This story of delayed recognition, “It sneaked up on me,” Ohlheiser told
KOCO
. His brother detailed the gravity of Jimmy’s injuries, stating, “He took a rifle round here that came out the back of his head. So, it was a devastating injury.” The efforts by the staff at the veterans’ home and Senator Lankford’s office finally unraveled where the award ended up, which was nowhere on his official military record until now.
Ohlheiser, who has lived at the Norman State Veterans Home since 2013, was surrounded by full house as he was officially awarded a long-awaited Purple Heart on that Monday morning. The ceremony not only marked a personal victory for Ohlheiser but also stands as a testimony to the perseverance and dedication of those who worked diligently to see his heroism duly recognized, retroactively restoring some semblance of what time and bureaucracy had misplaced, as per
KFOR
. “Damn near everything,” was how Ohlheiser summed up what his country means to him.
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