Photo: Amanda Hay-Caroffino
After racial inequalities prevented World War II veteran Osceola “Ozzie” Fletcher from receiving a Purple Heart after his return home, the U.S. Army finally presented the 99-year-old with his medal this month.
Fletcher was injured during the Battle of Normandy — a pivotal operation that saw Allied Forces successfully invade Western Europe — when his vehicle became the target of German gunfire, the Army said in anews release.
Seventy-seven years after the historic battle, Fletcher received his medal on June 18 while in front of 150 people at the Fort Hamilton Community Club in New York.
“There were probably many others like myself who did not get honored, and I just lasted longer,” Fletcher toldFox Newsof the honor.
Amanda Hay-Caroffino
“However, the guys of other complexions did get medals. They showed it in their neighborhoods and I found out about it in other ways,” he continued, “and the soldiers who got Purple Hearts are those people that weren’t there in the very, very beginning and it seems that maybe many officers got Purple Hearts because they were white.”
“But I don’t know about any other unwhite soldiers, you might say, getting honored in any way [at that time],” he continued.
During the ceremony, Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the Army, said Fletcher spent his life “giving to those around him,” whether they were with him in the Army or simply a neighbor in his community.
“Today we have the opportunity to pay Ozzie a long overdue tribute for the sacrifices he made to our nation and free people everywhere,” McConville said.
“Today it’s Ozzie’s turn to receive, but we are not really giving him anything today,” he added. “We’re delivering him something he’s been entitled to for almost 77 years: Purple Heart for wounds received.”
Citing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, theNational WWII Museumsaid there were only 325,574 American World War II veterans left alive in 2020. Sixteen million Americans served in the war,with 416,800 of them having been killed during duty.
source: people.com
