John Paggi earned his Purple Heart on Nov. 19, 1944, when he was hit by shrapnel. He laid in the French field for most of the day before medics could rescue him.

Alvin Thompson got his Jan. 11, 1945, two days after landing on Luzon Island. A machine gun bullet pierced his arm and lodged in his side.

Erik Nykkanen of Waukon, IA, who received a Purple Heart for his service in the Vietnam War, bows his head in prayer during Thursday’s Purple Heart Day ceremony at Riverside Park. PETER THOMSON photo

Ed Gray got his Aug. 26, 1969, in an ambush in the U Min forest of Vietnam. He took shrapnel and was shot in the hip and chest. He wears one of the bullets on a string around his neck.

William Maves got through three years in Vietnam without one.

The 59-year-old Edgerton, Wis., resident and Wisconsin National Guard soldier was wounded March 5, 2005, in Iraq when a roadside bomb destroyed his Humvee and sent shrapnel into his back and neck.

They were the lucky ones. They came home.

First Lt. Nick Dewhirst, Wisconsin’s latest Purple Heart recipient, was killed July 20 in Afghanistan.

All of Wisconsin’s veterans wounded and killed in combat were honored Thursday at a ceremony in La Crosse’s Riverside Park.

The Military Order of the Purple Heart has 882 Wisconsin members, although not all recipients belong to the organization. Neither the order nor the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs track how many people have received the medal.

About two dozen Purple Heart recipients — mostly World War II veterans — who attended the event were recognized for their sacrifices. Randy Dewhirst of Onalaska attended on behalf of his son.

The Wisconsin Assembly in 2001 designated Aug. 7 as Purple Heart Day. The medal is the country’s oldest military decoration, first introduced by George Washington in 1782 as the Badge of Military Merit.

This is the first year the ceremony has been held in La Crosse.

Don Weber, CEO of La Crosse’s Logistics Health and himself a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran, delivered the keynote address, praising the men and women of the military who make this country great through their sacrifices.

“It is our responsibility to honor those men and women,” he said.

Chris Hubbuch can be reached at chris.hubbuch@lee.net or (608) 791-8217.

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