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Just came across this lovely article on the BBC News website

Whilst my family isn't military, I figured there's enough peeps on Dakka who would be intrigued to warrant a thread.

That man. He does good work in the world.

That was a surprisingly captivating article. I've not thought about the Purple Heart in that way before - after all, any soldier can get one so it's not a rarity, right? But something worth $300 to a collector can still be priceless for those who maybe never knew what happened to someone who served in the armed forces.

Thanks for the tears (which I ofc fought off in a manly fashion) and let's hope Fike's group can bring closure to many more families still.

I get why some sell their medals. Hard times can be hard, and they’re seemingly easy money.

But what I disagree with is a family parting with a relatives medals following their passing.

As I mentioned above, I’m not from a military family, and I don’t think my grandparents got any medals during the Second World War, as they were lucky enough not to see action, despite doing their part.

But medals are a link to the heroism of our forefathers, and aren’t trinkets to be traded.

And don’t get me started on thieves in that regard. Seriously. I’ll get banned for breaking the swear filter.

I’ve got a healthy overtime bonus coming at the end of May. Reckon I’ll chuck some money to the charity. Just because I’m a pacifist, doesn’t mean I don’t respect the sacrifice of others.

I can see folks not caring about medals parents, grand parents (or great grand parents) received. At some point the connection to the action/person is lost and it is just some colored ribbon with a piece of metal attached taking up space on a shelf or (more likely) in a drawer somewhere. You come across it and it is clutter. You find out it may be worth a few bucks so you sell it, or it is just 'in the way' so you ditch it.

 CptJake wrote:
I can see folks not caring about medals parents, grand parents (or great grand parents) received. At some point the connection to the action/person is lost and it is just some colored ribbon with a piece of metal attached taking up space on a shelf or (more likely) in a drawer somewhere. You come across it and it is clutter. You find out it may be worth a few bucks so you sell it, or it is just 'in the way' so you ditch it.

To an extent. The Army built our unit a new building 2 years ago, and I headed up the project to name it. Picked an Air Corps weather guy who jumped into Normandy with the 101st. Ended up getting the Heart, and a Bronze Star that day (and 6 months of surgery, some MIA time, and a ton of PTSD to get with it).

Then I reached out to his family about him, there was a huge outpouring of support. There were cousins grandchildren who had never even met him, then traveled 3 states to attend the dedication ceremony. They were deeply moved by all of it.

I think a lot of families would care, especially once they learn the things that their family members did, and went through.

Hopefully I’ll have children one day, but they’ll have never met either of my grandparents, both of whom fought in the war. I imagine it’ll be harder for them to have that connection which is not only more distant, but more diluted as we have more grandparents than parents, and lots of great grandparents.

It’s unfortunate when people feel forced to sell medals, but some would genuinely prefer the money, particularly valuable medals could pay for an education or a home, which they may prefer to leave as a legacy rather than the medal itself. Further, a medal and its legacy will likely be better looked after by a collector than disinterested family. Proof of this is in the fact that medals are often worth more with provenance, collectors want the story of the person behind the medal not just the object itself.

Lastly, many soldiers don’t value the physical copies of their medals that much. We own my grandfather’s, but I think from his perspective they just reminded him of times he’d rather put behind him. He never wore them. Veterans can lose their medals but you can’t take away the fact they earned them. In a similar way, Niels Bohr sold his Nobel Prize to raise money for war relief. You can’t take away the fact he won the prize or diminish his work, if anything you have to commend him for putting it to good use.