Vietnam vet hunts clues to solve mystery of lost World War II purple heart
(FOX)- A Marine vet who fought in Vietnam is searching for the owner of a lost World War II Purple Heart.
The search has turned Don Crigger into a detective of sorts who feels duty-bound to solve the mystery, the News-Press in St. Joseph, Mo., reported Sunday.
“A Purple Heart is extra special because a serviceman has shed blood for his country,” Crigger said. “It needs to be recognized, and someone needs to have that in their possession.”
Twenty years ago a friend of Crigger’s bought of box of old photo frames at an antique store in Missouri, the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in West Virginia reported last week.
A few years later she rummaged through the box and discovered the medal with the name “Pete E. Cole” engraved on it, along with a serial number.
Crigger, 74, of St. Joseph, told the Herald-Dispatch his friend has cancer and has become fixated on returning the lost medal.
The ex-Marine knew from his own research that Cole enlisted in the Army on his 20th birthday in 1942 in Huntington, but not much more than that.