![\"Marines\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Marines-300x269.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nThe New York Times<\/a> tells the story of Dan Jones, the sole survivor of a 1968 Marine CH-46 helicopter crash, when the craft was accidentally shot out of the sky as it passed an artillery battery that was firing support for Marines in contact in Vietnam. 1LT Jones was rescued by a corpsman, Lloyd E. Colvin, who was awarded a Bronze Star for racing through a minefield to save Jones. <\/p>\n The other three members of the crew had died, and the pentagon decided that they didn’t deserve the Purple Heart Medals. 1LT Jones disagreed and spent the next 47 proving his point.<\/p>\n Last year, the Marine Corps reversed previous decisions and approved Purple Hearts for all the Marines who had been aboard the aircraft. A spokesman said the family of the one Marine who had not yet been formally recognized, a door gunner who was ejected from the crippled helicopter and fell to his death, would receive the medal as soon as his surviving family members set a date.<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n The turn of fortune came last year after George Ross, another fellow pilot from the squadron, submitted a bundle of documents to the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n Mr. Jones had not been optimistic as the records were assembled. \u201cI\u2019m afraid they\u2019ll never get the award,\u201d he wrote in an email from the time. \u201cI\u2019ve been hauling around these letters and such for forty-some years. Perhaps I\u2019ll leave them to my grandson.\u201d<\/p>\n Several months later, Mr. Ross called him to say the Purple Hearts were approved for the entire crew. As Mr. Jones described the conversation, his eyes welled with tears.<\/p>\n \u201cMy reaction to that call was pretty much the same as it is now,\u201d he said. \u201cI cried. I was at a loss for words.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey were my buddies,\u201d he added. \u201cI felt their deaths needed to be honored, and as the surviving crew member it was my responsibility to make sure that occurred.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n