Colorado Springs – Sixty-one years ago, just four days before his 21st birthday, a fighter pilot named Robert Duffy Jr. was shot down over German-occupied France. He survived the crash and nine months in the notorious Stalag Luft 3 prisoner-of-war camp.
But because of a clerical error, he was never awarded the Purple Heart given to military personnel wounded in battle.
Duffy, an Aurora resident since 1966, received his Purple Heart on Tuesday from Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. John Regni at a ceremony in the academy library.
“I got a letter way back then telling me they’d lost my paperwork and I’d have to reapply for the Purple Heart,” Duffy said. “It wasn’t important at the time. I was 23 and had things to do.”
Duffy never would have received the award had it not been for his grandson, Air Force Maj. Ken Burnham. Burnham had heard his grandfather talk about World War II, but the stories left out the blood and guts from Duffy’s shrapnel-wounded thigh and facial burns.
Two years ago, Burnham learned from an old family friend that his grandfather had been wounded and never received the Purple Heart.
“The Purple Heart is not earned, it’s an inherent right,” said Burnham, 40, who worked with Regni at Maxwell Air Force Base just prior to his recent assignment to the academy. “This needed to be done. You shouldn’t have to ask for it.”
Since Duffy’s military records had been destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Burnham had to prove his grandfather had been wounded – which required an eyewitness.
Burnham located the eyewitness in France. He obtained testimony from a woman who had met the pilot shot from the sky when she was only 12.
The village near the crash site used the remains of Duffy’s plane to build a monument, and residents celebrate the anniversary of D-Day every year at the site, Burnham said.
Duffy continued to fly missions in the Korean War and retired from the Air Force with the rank of major. He and his wife, Marjorie, moved to Colorado, where Duffy spent 20 years with United Airlines.
At Tuesday’s ceremony, Duffy was welcomed by several members of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
“Those of us who survive our wounds know how truly blessed we are to be alive,” said the order’s Latoya Lucas, wounded in Iraq. “We wear the Purple Heart for our compatriots who didn’t make it back.”
