Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Lake Worth soldier awarded a Purple Heart.
Lake Worth soldier awarded Purple Heart medal
LAKE WORTH – Staff Sgt. Robert Herpel doesn’t remember much from the 2009 Baghdad mission that would cost him much of his memory. But he remembers the flash of light as his Humvee struck an explosive device in the sand.
Herpel later learned he took pieces of shrapnel to his chest area, and that the blast had essentially “turned his brain to Jell-O,” resulting in a traumatic brain injury that robbed him of his short-term memory.
Herpel, 46, of Lake Worth, was awarded the Purple Heart medal on Thursday. He was stoic as a command of U.S. Army soldiers saluted him for his sacrifice in Iraq nearly a decade ago.
The Purple Heart is a prestigious medal awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces by the president of the United States. It’s “awarded to those who are wounded and killed in combat,” said Lt. Colonel Randall Newman, who fastened the medal to Herpel’s Army uniform. “It’s important we recognize him today like we should have back in 2009.”
The recognition, introduced as the “Badge of Military Merit” by General George Washington in 1782, is the nation’s oldest military award.
In 2009, Herpel’s convoy was on its way back from a mission. He saw the flash, heard the boom — and then felt nothing.
Trauma to his brain compromised much of Herpel’s short-term and some of his long-term memory, but the medal will serve as a physical reminder of his sacrifice all those years ago, he said.
“It’s gratifying,” he said after the ceremony. “In the end, it’s more beneficial for my wife and my daughter, but to finally have a
command that made this happen, it’s really a verification.”
Herpel returned to Iraq three months after his injury to finish his deployment and later returned to an army base in Fort Hood, Texas. In July 2015, he was assigned to recruiting duty in Lake Worth.
Herpel’s Command Group, consisting of soldiers he works with, pushed all the necessary paperwork through in a matter of months when it had taken him nearly eight years to develop a strong paper trail proving what happened to him and that it warranted the medal, he said.
The process was put on the back burner whenever he got deployed again, he said.
He was focused more on healing and going back into battle than he was on completing paperwork, said his wife, Deidre Herpel, 57.
“It’s amazing that this happened,” she said. “He’s sacrificed so much. He’s not the same soldier we sent over, but he’s got the same personality and sense of humor, and he has his good days.”
He has his bad days, too, she said. Sometimes he won’t remember visiting a place they’ve been to multiple times before, like his daughter’s house, or he’ll forget where they’re headed in the car, she said. He has daily headaches of varying intensity, he said.
And in May last year, he suffered a stroke and seizures resulting from his injuries. “We’ve probably had more than 300 doctor’s appointments in a 12-month period,” she said. “But he’s getting better each month, and every year when it comes to his memory.”
Next week, Robert Herpel will start medical retirement, and the couple will move to Hawaii, where he’ll continue pursuing his master’s degree in business management.
And as a result of his Purple Heart, his daughter, 18-year-old Shaylee Herpel, will qualify for specific scholarships, and many universities won’t charge her tuition, he said.