The family of an Arkansan WWII machine gunner wounded more than 72 years ago received his posthumous Purple Heart on Friday after utilizing records from U.S. Rep. French Hill's office.
Walter Corley of Prattsville was severely concussed after a shell exploded several feet from his machine gun position in Sicily on Aug. 12, 1943, according to a pamphlet read at Friday's ceremony.
Corley's friend and ammo bearer was killed in the blast, which sent Corley to the hospital for several weeks before he was discharged in 1944, the pamphlet said.
Corley died in 1996, said his son Bill Corley, who began searching for records documenting his father's injury in 2004.
Bill Corley said he gave up shortly after when he was told the records had been destroyed in a fire.
His search resumed when he read an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article about the state's senators and congressmen working to resolve veteran's issues.
Bill Corley contacted Hill, whose office had 400 pages of war records obtained through the congressman's military liaison.
"He did something in four weeks that took me 10 years to try and do," Corley said of the congressman. Hill presented the medal to the Corley family Friday.
His son said the medal brought closure to Walter Corley's family — which includes four kids, six grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren — but it did not weigh on the veteran in his lifetime.
"Dad was truly one of the Greatest Generation," Corley said. "He didn't want any medals; he didn't want any recognition; he just wanted to do his job and get home."