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Missing Their Medals?

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

William H. Doane holds a photograph of him taken around 1942 while serving in the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. Doane said about receiving a Purple Heart, "it would be a great joy to me if I could get that rewarded."

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By BILL RETTEW JR.

Highlands Today

Published: September 23, 2008

SEBRING - William H. Doane, 83, spent 17 days floating off the coast of Africa in a life boat, with battle-torn legs.

Clyde Briggs lost most of his hearing while taking shrapnel to the belly.

Both men served the United States during separate World War II battles.

Neither man has yet received a Purple Heart medal - which they claim they are due - to signify that they were injured while serving in the U.S. military.

A German submarine torpedoed the U.S. Navy sailor Doane's ship twice. He jumped 30 feet from the deck, while the ship's prop continued to spin, before the vessel sank in less than a minute.

There was little to eat or drink until an English ship rescued the 25 survivors from the merchant marine ship.

The men survived in the sun on mostly flying fish that jumped into the life boat and an ounce of water, twice a day.

Briggs, 87, lost all of his hearing in one ear and only 30 percent hearing remains in the other. He still sports a scar from shrapnel from a battle with Japanese soldiers in the Philippines.

Both men say paperwork on their injuries was lost, and their wounds, for the most part, went undocumented or were possibly destroyed by fire.

Doane said no American survivors remain from the day his ship sank.

Along with their wives, the men talked recently about their return home after the war ended. Their thoughts were nearly identical on why they failed to immediately press a case for the Purple Heart Award.

Jeanne and Clyde Briggs were married a little more than a week after the U.S. Army soldier returned from battle.

"The only thing I was interested in was buying a house and getting back home to Jeanne," said Clyde Briggs.

Julia Holmes, former Highlands County Veteran's Service Office employee and Avon Park resident, worked for the past year to help get the pair of veterans Purple Heart awards they say they are due.

"I told him I would do the best I could, as long as he didn't give up on me, and I wouldn't give up on him," said Holmes.

Holmes contacted representatives of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. Bill Nelson, U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney and producers of the Montel Williams Show.

Holmes and Briggs are frustrated. Both seek closure.

"Every time we tried a new avenue, it was blocked, or we were passed on to another department," said Holmes.

While some military records were lost, Briggs still possesses a copy of his Enlisted Record and report for separation with an honorable discharge. The paperwork clearly states, following "wounds received in action," the single word, "ONE."

"I just don't know how much longer I've got," said Clyde Briggs. "At this point, I'm very disgusted. I hope they're treating the new veterans better than the way they treated us."

Jeanne Briggs said she hopes to someday give the medal to her son as a way to remember his father.

Doane said the award would help mark the contribution by others who he fought alongside.

"I was hoping some day, that for what I did, I would be granted the Purple Heart," said Doane. "I know I earned it.

"It would be completion on what he earned in World War II," said Rosemarie Doane. "It would make him prouder to finally get what's due."

Mahoney was first contacted in October 2007 by Holmes on the behalf of Briggs and Doane.

"While the Purple Heart Award is a high honor and should only be given in select cases, the rules guiding its award are quite archaic and need to be updated," said Mahoney.

"For months, we have been fighting to get these agencies to understand that, in the case of these World War II veterans, there are no witnesses alive and finding the exact information that meets the Purple Heart criteria has been very difficult.

"We will continue to work to ensure that these men are honored in the way they deserve to be," he added.

Bill Rettew Jr. may be contacted at 386-5857 or wrettew@highlandstoday.com

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