On 23 September 2016 at noon, a long lost WWII Purple Heart was returned to the niece of PFC John V. Munson.  The ceremony took place at their family home in Puyallup, Washington.

Private First Class John V. Munson, (Service Number: 39622092), was born on 25 May 1926 in Bemidji, Minnesota to Nels and Elizabeth Willet Munson.  He would enlist and fight during WWII with the 381^st Infantry Regiment, 79^th Infantry Division.  Unfortunately, he was killed in action on 28 April 1945 in Okinawa, Japan.  For his service, he earned two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart.  He is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which is located in Hawaii, Plot E-89.

On 28 April 194, the 381^st Infantry, in an effort to weaken resistance on Okinawa, began their attack southeast through Nakama toward the “Apartment House”.  This was a large concrete school building, used a barracks, which was a center of Japanese strength; it was situated south of the escarpment between the villages of Nakama and Maeda.  In a half hour of hand-to-hand fighting, the Regiment was repulsed with heavy loses, and survivors withdrew under smoke.  One of these many loses was PFC Munson. What is known is that PFC Munson was a fierce fighter and died alongside his fellow brothers.

His lost Purple Heart was discovered in a local storage unit and rescued by Mr. Robert Goins of Tacoma, Washington.  He quickly reached out to Purple Hearts Reunited to assist in finding the family.

The medal was returned to Louis’s niece, Mrs. Dee Arneberg. She is the daughter of John’s sister, Irene Elizabeth Munson.