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There is a database below, but first I would like to start out with a little history about my dad, Bernie Horn
and the reason why I created this page. My dad was drafted into service on October 29, 1943, just ten days after his 19th
birthday. He entered into active service on November 19, 1943 and his first stop was Fort Sheridan, Ill., in which he stayed for
2 weeks. He then went to Camp Blanding, Florida, until July 1st, 1944. He was then sent home on a "delay in route" leave. After
his visit home, he was shipped to Fort Ord, California. This is where he wrote and asked my mother to marry him and she accepted.
After he left Fort Ord, he was sent to Camp Stoneman for 2 days before boarding a ferry in Pittsburgh, California enroute to
San Francisco. In San Francisco, he boarded a troop ship enroute to New Guinea. He was there for 1 month and then he boarded a
ship enroute to the Admiralty Islands, he was there 2 days and boarded a troop ship once again headed for Leyte, Philippine Islands.
He arrived there October 20, 1944, one day after his 20th birthday. His stay there was very short. During an air raid on October 25,
1944, my dad was severly injured as a bomb blew up right next to him. He recalls he was lighting a cigarette at the time of the
explosion. This explosion took my dad's left arm and also punctured his left ear drum. He was operated on that night yet and the
next morning was taken by ambulance to the beach landing and loaded on a barge that took him to the Liberty Ship where he
waited 2 days to be boarded on the hospital ship. Once aboard the hospital ship, the USS Comfort, he was transported back to
Oro Bay, New Guinea. That did not come without incident either. While enroute on the hospital ship, they encountered a typhoon.
He related stories of how the patients on that ship were rocked and rolled, sometimes right out of their bunks. On December 7th,
1944, he left New Guinea on the Liberty ship and landed back in San Francisco on December 25th, 1944. My father did not let his
"disabilities" get to him. I phrase it as such because he never thought of himself as being disabled. He has learned to do everything
with just one arm that any other person can do with two. My dad's first job was at an electric spray company, however when the
company lost their government contract, he lost his job. He then start with Armour Leather company on October 2, 1945 as a switch
board operator and advanced with the company from there until his retirement in January, 1984 when the company closed it's doors
in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. At the time of the company closing, he was a production expeditor, his last job there until the day the
doors literally closed was a switchboard operator. After the company let the office staff go, they brought my dad down to run the
switchboard again. He never let his injuries get him down and every new challenge he faced, he conquered, including raising three
children. I have always been very proud of my dad.
Sadly my father passed away on Thursday, July 15, 2010, after a 6 month battle with Merkel Cell Cancer. Even with
finding out the cancer spread to his bones and caused a weak spot in his only arm, which resulted in a break
to happen, he still didn't give up. He was bound and determined to regain the use of that arm again. Sadly because
of the cancer being where the break was, they couldn't do Chemo to slow the spread of the cancer down and 3 months
to the day that he broke his arm, he went home to God.
Daddy, I Love you and miss you so much, I know I will see you and mom in Heaven again someday.
Below are three pictures of my dad in his Army days and right after the war. Click on the button for a bigger picture.
 |  |  |
To submit a recipient
This website was created to honor my father and the other Military Personnel who have received
a purple heart. Below is a database of men and women who have received a purple heart. This database is no where near complete.
Recipient Database Below
The Purple Heart webpage now has a mailing list.
In addition to placing your recipient here, you may want to join the mailing list also. You can either join the
No matter which mode you chose, please make sure all signature files are turned off, type Subscribe in the text area. You will receive a welcome letter if it worked.
You are the 
to have visited since we established at the new site on December 17, 1998.
Thanks for stopping by!
Recipient Database Listed by Surnames
This website was awarded
on March 28, 2001
A wonderful website for those who
found medals and wish to return them to their owners/families.
All Purple
Heart Recipients are eligible for membership in the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze
A young soldier saluted it, and then
He stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many Pilots' planes shot down?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No Freedom is not free
I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen"
When a flag had draped a coffin of a brother or a
friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No Freedom isn't free!
Author--Cadet Major Kelly Strong
Purple Heart image created by: Eme's Creations
Awards our webpage have won. We display these awards proudly and thank those who believe our webpage has earned them.
Send your comments, information or suggestions to Debie & Joe
This page is created & maintained by Joe & Debie Blindauer in admiration for all who have served in war and because of the inspiration that Debie's dad has always been to us.
Copyright 1997 - 2009
Established Feb. 7, 1997
