PURPLE HEART

National Purple Heart Day is Sunday, and a local organization is helping recipients from Texas and across the country.

More than 30 soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injuries after a missile attack were denied the Purple Heart.

The City of Laredo has been proclaimed as a Purple Heart City on Monday, Nov. 15,...

A San Antonio native who served our country in Japan and Vietnam was awarded with the Purple Heart medal during a ceremony Monday morning at the VFW Hall on Austin Highway.

The Purple Heart recipient told our sister station he hopes to skydive for a second time on his 95th birthday.

SAN ANTONIO – Work has finally begun to restore the home of 94-year-old Alfred Guerra, who earned the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart during World War II while fighting in the Pacific. “It’s the least we can do is make sure that he has a comfortable home to live in,” Roman said. “It’s veterans helping veterans. But Roman said it may be at least another month before Guerra is able to return to his home. Although his memory is not what it used to be, Guerra said, “I will never forget what you did for me.”RELATED: Efforts underway to help 94-year-old war hero return to his home

Alfred Guerra, 94, also earned a Bronze Star in the Pacific War during World War II. Guerra’s daughter, Maria, said Roman was the first to call her offering his help. “With all the help that these people are giving, the organizations that are willing to help, I’m amazed and I’m grateful for all of it,” Maria Guerra said. It would have been a devastating injury if he had, Maria Guerra said. They’re going to come out and help,” Roman said.

Compadres Hill Country Cocina is honoring Purple Heart recipients on National Purple Heart DayIf you need help with the Public File, call 210-351-1241.

The Purple Heart and Disabled Veterans Equal Access Act opened up the exchange stores and commissaries to all Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, veterans with any level of service-connected disability, and caregivers of eligible veterans, said Julie Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. This benefit welcomes home our nations heroes to their military communities with tax-free shopping and military-exclusive pricing, Mitchell said. Commissaries essentially operate as grocery stores for the military bases and are able to offer food to military families at significantly discounted prices. The exchange stores, often referred to as the BX, base exchange, or PX, post exchange, are more like department stores, offering a wide variety of merchandise from jewelry and clothes to vacuum cleaners and guns. The new rule also gives these veterans access to the morale, welfare, and recreation centers at military bases.

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police have arrested a man accused of stealing a vehicle and a Purple Heart from a wounded warrior while he recovered at Brooke Army Medical Center, officials said. Cloud on the city’s West Side and recovered another stolen vehicle Wednesday afternoon. On Dec. 13, KSAT reported that someone stole a 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 containing a wounded warrior’s Purple Heart, an American battlefield flag, several military medals, his family’s medical paperwork and Christmas presents from a hotel on Broadway near Loop 410. Wounded warrior’s Purple Heart stolen in car theftThe stolen pickup and the sentimental items were found by officers with the Vehicle Crimes Unit near I-35 and South Zarzamora on the South Side, officials said. Wounded Army veteran’s Purple Heart found, truck returnedBernal faces two charges of vehicle theft and could face additional charges.

San Antonio – A wounded warrior and his wife are ecstatic after learning San Antonio police found their 2019 F-150 truck and the sentimental items in it, like his Purple Heart and battlefield American flag. The theft happened Friday after Asia Davis, wife of Army Veteran Ryan Davis, was packing the pickup up to move into their new home at Fort Sam Houston while Ryan recovers from his IED accident that happened in Afghanistan in August. “I could tell things were taken out of it, but I just wanted the important stuff,” Davis said. “I went in the back and opened the boxes and I saw the coin bag where all the coins were and where I put the Purple Heart. To the people who have reached out to me and Ryan,” Davis said.

The proposed new rules restrict in-ground burial to those killed in action, award recipients of the Silver Star and higher who also served in combat, Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, presidents and vice presidents of the U.S., and those who died in combat-related service deaths while conducting uniquely military activities. Exceptions can also be made for veterans with combat service who "also served out of uniform as a government official and made significant contributions to the nation's security at the highest levels of public service."

An associate sorting donations at a Goodwill in Tuscon, Arizona, came across a Purple Heart medal in a box of housewares. (CNN) - An associate sorting donations at a Goodwill in Tuscon, Arizona, came across a Purple Heart medal in a box of housewares. He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously. The Purple Heart is given to US service members who are wounded or killed in combat. In 2016, another Purple Heart was accidentally donated to a Goodwill in Arizona and with the help of social media it was reunited with the service member's family in Missouri.

Purple Heart awarded to 89-year-old WWII veteran World War II veteran Richard Faulkner, 89, was given a Purple Heart at a ceremony in upstate New York 70 years in the making. Faulkner was the sole survivor of a combat crash in France in 1944 that left him behind enemy lines. Jim Axelrod reports.