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Korean War Veteran Gets Purple Heart After Six-Decade Wait

After nearly six decades, a Korean War veteran in California received a Purple Heart for rescuing a wounded Marine during a fierce firefight -- one in which he was injured, too, and then returned to the fight only to be hurt again, The Mercury News reported.

On July 27, 1953, Eugene Bradford, now 77 and living in Palo Alto, rescued an unconscious Marine laid out over a rice paddy, the paper reported. Bradford, who earlier was injured during a fight with a knife-wielding enemy, charged toward the Marine through a hail of bullets and managed to pull him to safety. But not before he absorbed three pieces of shrapnel in his body, the paper reported.

“After that, I took about a half-hour break,” Bradford quipped to the paper. He reportedly took command of the platoon for the next five hours, until “the inevitable happened” and he was “knocked out” when a round got too close to him....

Read entire article at Fox News