My Grandfather and the Purple Heart

 
Jeremy Keith Hammond
 
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Jeremy Keith Hammond
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24 June 2008 09:49
 

For a Christmas gift (yep, I’m an early bird) I’ve been thinking about designing arms and emblazoning them for my grandfather. I’ll hit a couple birds with one stone too, because my Uncles (or at least the eldest) would appreciate an heraldic tradition as well.

Any ways, George Hammond, my grandfather, served in World War II and received the purple heart for injuries he received in Normandy. Now, I’m not confident that his good conduct medal, or European campaign medal are worthy of note, but I was wondering if his Purple Heart was of a high enough caliber to include in his armorial achievement.

 
kimon
 
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kimon
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24 June 2008 10:03
 

I believe that according to the AHS guidelines any decorations under "Personal decorations" listed here can be included.

 
Dale Challener Roe
 
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Dale Challener Roe
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24 June 2008 10:05
 

I don’t have an answer for you, but I will say this.

If the Purple Heart isn’t "high enough caliber" to include on an achievement, then IMO modern heraldic custom needs to change.

 
Jeremy Keith Hammond
 
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24 June 2008 10:10
 

kimon;59751 wrote:

I believe that according to the AHS guidelines any decorations under "Personal decorations" listed here can be included.


That site includes the Army Good Conduct Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal too. Maybe I should include all of them.

 
kimon
 
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kimon
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24 June 2008 10:14
 

Jeremy Hammond;59753 wrote:

That site includes the Army Good Conduct Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal too. Maybe I should include all of them.

I believe that according to the AHS guidelines, those cannot be included as they’re not "personal" awards. The Purple Heart, on the other hand, is.

Though, I will defer to the directors of the AHS to clarify.

 
Terry
 
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Terry
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24 June 2008 10:14
 

Hi,

Yes I am pretty sure the Purple Heart qualifies.  He was awarded this due to receiving wounds while in conflict with the enemy.

 

Examples of enemy-related injuries which justify award of the Purple Heart are as follows:

 

(a) Injury caused by enemy bullet, shrapnel, or other projectile created by enemy action.

 

(b) Injury caused by enemy placed land mine, naval mine, or trap.

 

(c) Injury caused by enemy released chemical, biological, or nuclear agent.

 

(d) Injury caused by vehicle or aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire.

 

(e) Concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions.

 
Jeremy Keith Hammond
 
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24 June 2008 10:25
 

kimon;59754 wrote:

I believe that according to the AHS guidelines, those cannot be included as they’re not "personal" awards. The Purple Heart, on the other hand, is.

Though, I will defer to the directors of the AHS to clarify.


OH, I understand what you mean by personal, now.


Terry wrote:

Hi,

Yes I am pretty sure the Purple Heart qualifies. He was awarded this due to receiving wounds while in conflict with the enemy.

 

Examples of enemy-related injuries which justify award of the Purple Heart are as follows:

 

(a) Injury caused by enemy bullet, shrapnel, or other projectile created by enemy action.

 

(b) Injury caused by enemy placed land mine, naval mine, or trap.

 

(c) Injury caused by enemy released chemical, biological, or nuclear agent.

 

(d) Injury caused by vehicle or aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire.

 

(e) Concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions.


Yes, he was hit by shrapnel in both ankles. He also still has a bullet between his heart and lung. That’s not from combat, though. Just an interesting hunting accident. Suffice to say, my grandfather is one of the reasons hunter-orange is mandatory.

 
Dale Challener Roe
 
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24 June 2008 10:30
 

Jeremy Hammond;59756 wrote:

Suffice to say, my grandfather is one of the reasons hunter-orange is mandatory.


Do I see Tenne in his armorial future? wink

 
Jeremy Keith Hammond
 
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24 June 2008 10:34
 

Actually, yes. It’s going to be an interesting design, I think. The original purpose of the orange is not to symbolize the hunter color, though. But I made that connection just as I was writing the last post and then I started trying to find other reasons for the other colors. Though they will stand alone.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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24 June 2008 12:44
 

Of course, the guidelines are just guidelines, but the Department of Defense does classify the Purple Heart as a decoration, as opposed to a service medal. So yes, under the guidelines, it would be appropriate for display beneath a coat of arms. DoD considers the AGCM and EAME to be service medals, not decorations, and are therefore not customarily displayed as part of an armorial achievement.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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24 June 2008 12:50
 

I feel obliged to add an expression of disapproval for devising different arms for a paternal grandfather than those borne by his grandson.  This defeats the fundamentally hereditary nature of heraldry.

 
David E. Cohen
 
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David E. Cohen
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24 June 2008 13:09
 

Perhaps, Joseph, he could have the same arms, but employ a different crest and badge?  I like the concept of differencing by crest, which I understand is somewhat prevalent in parts of Continental Europe.

 
David Pritchard
 
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24 June 2008 14:01
 

Dale Challener Roe;59752 wrote:

If the Purple Heart isn’t "high enough caliber" to include on an achievement, then IMO modern heraldic custom needs to change.


The Badge of Military Merit as devised by George Washington was actually a cloth purple heart with the word "Merit" embroidered upon it. The cloth badge was worn on the left breast of the soldier’s tunic.


<div class=“bbcode_center” >
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/MeritBadge.jpg
</div>


Sadly since the Badge of Military Merit was re-configured in 1932 as the Purple Heart, is has been reduced to the status of a wound badge*. It should be said that just as title inflation infected the 18th and 19th century nobles and royals of Europe with soveriegn counts becoming princes, dukes becoming kings and kings becoming emperors, United States medals and decorations have proliferated and been devalued. Especially in the Army and Air Force, one get receive medals for just being there, just doing ones job well etc. Thankfully the Marine Corps and to a lesser extent the US Navy have not fallen into the habit of giving out gongs to everyone. For decorations to have meaning they must be granted rarely and sparingly.

 

*Most countries do not have wound badges. The best known badges of this type are the United States (Purple Heart) and Germany (Verwundetenabzeichen). Considering that the point of war is to kill the enemy without being killed or wounded, logic would dictate that those who are not killed or wounded while serving in combat should receive the decorations.

 
Wilfred Leblanc
 
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Wilfred Leblanc
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24 June 2008 14:16
 

Joseph McMillan;59766 wrote:

I feel obliged to add an expression of disapproval for devising different arms for a paternal grandfather than those borne by his grandson.  This defeats the fundamentally hereditary nature of heraldry.


Would he not have the option of quartering his arms with those devised for his grandfather?

 
David Pritchard
 
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24 June 2008 14:20
 

Fred White;59773 wrote:

Would he not have the option of quartering his arms with those devised for his grandfather?


Only in a country where heraldry was unregulated. Even here where heraldry is legally a free for all it would be in poor taste and should be discouraged as it is counter to the purpose of heraldry, that being a visual and hereditary system of personal identification.

 
Jeremy Keith Hammond
 
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24 June 2008 14:43
 

Joseph McMillan;59766 wrote:

I feel obliged to add an expression of disapproval for devising different arms for a paternal grandfather than those borne by his grandson.  This defeats the fundamentally hereditary nature of heraldry.


George Hammond is my mother’s father and my mother is not an heiress. Otherwise, I would have designed arms for him first and then mine with a slight difference.

 

I have my mothers last name because there is no father in the picture (and if any one was worried, it’s not a sensitive issue.) But I can see why you may have tripped on that one.

 

I wanted to make sure that once I committed myself to a specific armorial achievement, I wouldn’t stumble on any road blocks, like discovering I have any rights to pre-existing arms or finding out there was specific symbolism for bastards (which there are none that are required. Though I did almost have a sinister facing helm before I discovered that that was specifically Spanish.) So I did quite a bit of reading and determined that as a bastard, designing my own arms, was the most appropriate course of action.

 

Now, I know this is branching out of military heraldry (Though, I suppose you could argue that military heraldry is a bit redundant and this forum section is simply for heraldry), so if a moderator wanted to move this to Personal Heraldry: by all means.

 

Here are the potential arms of George Hammond:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/jeremy6857/george_hammond.gif

I’m not positive how to describe the arms with different colors, but I’ll give it a shot.

 

Argent, a cross quarter-pierced, the horizontal/pale(?) arms vert, the vertical/fess(?) arms tenne.

 

The design is taken from another symbol used to indicate him in life. George has been a lobster-fisherman forever. You may or may not know that in order to tell which lobster buoy is yours from far away on your boat, it is painted differently. Every lobsterman has his own design, and I could be mistaken, but I’m fairly sure they have to be registered. They even post one of their buoys on the top of their lobster boat, much like a flag. (Neat little heraldry link there.) At least, that is the tradition Down-East Maine.

 

His buoy is white with two perpendicular orange and green stripes.

 

The idea was inspired when I was browsing the college of arms website and found this achievment HERE.

 

I just loved the badge and doing something similar seems SO appropriate for him.

 

Unfortunately, it is very likely that this past summer was his last out on his boat. He’s a rugged old man and has survived and excelled after many heart and hip surgeries, but just barely has the strength to do it anymore.