Son reunited with father’s Purple Heart
Published: May 20, 2006
A miraculous story out of Starke County: a Purple Heart, found by a North Judson woman, has been returned to its rightful owner from California.
It’s all thanks to the Internet and a group of very determined people.
A California man lost the only memento he had from a father he never knew.
What’s worse, that memento was one of the military’s highest honors, a Purple Heart.
Unexpected discovery
Brenda Vlach lives in North Judson, Howard Schoenleben in San Diego, California.
The two strangers are connected by a Purple Heart and a story of lost and found that took decades to unfold.
It started in 1984 when Brenda was living in a home located on Garfield Avenue in North Judson.
“I found the Purple Heart years back,” says Brenda. “We were remodeling the bathroom and the kitchen. I think it was the bathroom where we found it in one of the walls. I put it away and didn’t think anything of it.”
For 16 years, Brenda held on to the Purple Heart until Memorial Day, 2000, when she attended a service at a local park, honoring veterans in the community. She decided it was time to return the medal to its rightful owner.
The medal was passed on to Joe Smrt, a leader with the North Judson American Legion. “We followed up by putting ads in the newspaper and checking in with the membership of the American Legions and VFWs and no one seemed to have any idea about it,” he said.
As a last resort, Smrt asked his daughter to post an alert on the Internet.
Years later, he was contacted by a man who knew the medal belonged to Howard Schoenleben Jr.
Howard’s family was awarded the medal when his father was killed in World War II.
“My father never saw me, I never saw him. He was killed two days before my first birthday,” explains Howard Jr. “He was mortally wounded the 17th of February off the shores of Iwo Jima.
Howard Jr. lost the Purple Heart while he was staying with his grandparents in Indiana in the 1960’s.
His grandparents lived in the little home, located in North Judson.
“I will keep it in my safety deposit box. I’ll take much better care of it this time,” says Howard Jr.
Headed home
Howard Schoenleben Jr. will take his father’s medal back home to San Deigo, California.
He says he is very thankful to the people of Starke County, Indiana, who never gave up their search for the owner of the lost Purple Heart.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: