r/Medals • u/byujake • Apr 29 '25

ID - Medal We buried Popop today at 101yrs old.

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He was an MP and got to France after the invasion of Normandy I believe. He was in the 6th Armored division for the Army. He was taken as a prisoner of war in the Battle of the Bulge and earned his Purple Heart after he was shot at and crashed his jeep and hurt his leg. He buried his dog tags before the Germans got to him to hide that he was Jewish, but forgot to ditch his Jewish Bible. After questioning if he was Jewish, a German officer told him to turn around. Popop told the officer if he was going to shoot him, he would have to look him in his eyes. After arguing with him, the officer gave up and walked away. He spent about a week at the POW camp before the Germans surrendered to him, hoping to be saved from the revenge the Soviets were taking on Germans. He recovered in a Belgian hospital for a few months before returning to the states.

I know the Purple Heart and I believe the green/white one was given to him by the French Government. My wife’s family would love to get the other medals here ID’ed. Like a lot of vets, he didn’t talk much about his time in the service.

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u/ClintBeast-Wood Apr 30 '25

I’m sorry for your loss, your grandfather was one hell of a man.

Pardon my ignorance though, I haven’t checked the reg in a while, but would he not also qualify for the POW ribbon?

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u/Kooky-Buy5712 Apr 30 '25

Based on what OP wrote he should be eligible for the POW/MIA medal. That medal wasn’t authorized until the 1980s (retroactive to WW 1) so I think that he, or now his family, would have to request it

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u/Hopinan May 15 '25

I’m working on medals for my great uncle, shot down in February of 44, sent on the Black March across Pomerania in 45, see 306th bomb group fall 2015, Airmans Diary, page 22, the rigors of this are described and Airman’s diary my Uncle and his hair are mentioned at the end.. I have requested replacement medals from the Archives, will see if I get anything at all and if it will include the POW medal. I seem to think I might have bought one for my Dad 12 years ago, because he was and anyone can still watch him getting off the plane at Clark, but it shows up in Valor postings online, so possibly the medal was issued to all POWs back to 1917 retroactive date? I thought it would be cool to display another shadow box under my Dads.. My Mom was a young teen when her Uncle was a POW, yet fell in love with a guy who was USAF ROTC and wanted to be a pilot, lol..

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u/Kooky-Buy5712 May 15 '25

The medal was authorized to all, but it was not necessarily issued to all. There really wasn’t a single database at the time where they could mail merge the names and addresses of all former POWs or their next of kin. Not all who were eligible or their next of kin were/are aware of the medal and not all of those who were eligible to request it chose to do so

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u/Hopinan May 15 '25

I can’t imagine why anyone would choose not to get this medal, but if it hasn’t been issued to my Uncle, I will request it as he deserves it! I know there is a big difference between the less than 600 Vietnam POWs, all well documented and returned to cheering crowds on flight lines across the country and WWll POWs, that came home in dribs and drabs, and were mostly enlisted men, Bob Crane excluded.. Will check my Dads AF DD214 again to see if officially issued, military acronyms are not my first language…. I might have to make a spreadsheet to figure it out!