32 Years Later, Actor Garner Gets His Medal
LOS ANGELES (AP)It came 32 years after he was wounded in Korea, but actor James Garner was delighted Monday to finally get his Purple Heart from the U.S. Army.
"After 32 years it's better to receive this now than posthumously," said Garner as Maj. Gen. Llyle Barker pinned the medal to his plaid jacket. "It is indeed an honor and I tried to serve my country to the best of my ability."
The medal, awarded for wounds received in action, was delayed through a mixup. The Army decided to present it after Garner commented on ABC's "Good Morning America" in November that he had never gotten it.
The presentation was made in the offices of Lorimar Productions, for whom, incidentally, Garner is about to begin a military movie called "Tank."
Garner, then Pvt. James S. Bumgarner, was wounded April 23, 1951, while serving with the 5th Regimental Combat Team of the 24th Division in Korea.
"I was going south fighting the North Koreans at the time," said Garner, who shortened his name when he became an actor.
"As a matter of fact, I got hit in the backside. I went into a foxhole headfirst and I was a little late. There's a lot of room for error with a wound in the rear. It's a wide target."
The wound was Garner's second in Korea, but the first that required hospitalization. Earlier, he was hit in a hand by shrapnel from a mortar round.
Monday's presentation included an oak leaf cluster since Garner was entitled to two Purple Hearts. After being wounded once, a soldier is awarded the medal, and an oak leaf cluster is added each time he is wounded again.
"I was in the hospital and a Red Cross worker asked me if I had had a Purple Heart and I said yes," he said. "I meant I'd been awarded one but I never got the medal. Later, when I asked for the medal they said I'd already gotten it."
Garner said he had tried to get the medal so he could give it to his grandmother, but she died several years ago.
"I'll give it to my children," he said. "It means a lot to me. As you get older you get more sentimental."
Garner said he was drafted into the Army from his home in Norman, Okla., in 1951. He spent 21 months in the Army, 14 of them in Korea, and was discharged as a staff sergeant.
"I was drafted and then I got out as fast as I could," he said. "Do I have fond memories? I guess if you get together with some buddies it's fond. But it really wasn't. It was cold and hard. I was one of the lucky ones. A lot of good men didn't come back."
