Purple Heart is returned to family 76 years after death of veteran
Ben Johnson was rummaging around his father’s house in July, looking for a book, when he found a rusty metal box buried in a dresser drawer.
Johnson, who lives in Minnesota, forgot about the Loretta Lynn book he was desperately searching for just moments before. He opened the box, marked by decades of wear and tear, to find screws, keys and other odds and ends. And underneath a removable tray, he discovered a Purple Heart, which is presented to service members who have been wounded or killed in enemy action.
He began to search for the family of the named military man etched into the medal, Edward J. Ryan.
On Saturday, that medal was returned to Kirt Ashman, Cpl. Ryan’s great-nephew.
“To have this come back into the family means a lot, to not just my family but my grandmother,” Ashman, 58, said. “She’s gone, but this was her little brother, and she loved him tremendously.”
Ashman never knew his greatuncle but his grandmother always spoke of how much she loved Edward.
“Whenever she would talk about her brother, it would make her said,” Ashman said. “I never wanted to ask her any more than that.”
After reading Stephen Ambrose’s book “D-Day” about five years ago, Ashman started researching his great-uncle.
He learned that Ryan served in the 717th Tank Battalion during World War II and was killed in the Netherlands on March 27, 1945, when an artillery shell hit his tank. Ryan had just celebrated his 22nd birthday.
He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart for his service.
Ashman placed Ryan’s name on the Lost Hearts database run by Purple Hearts Reunited, a nonprofit that works to return medals of valor to veterans and their families.
That’s where Johnson found him. He alerted Purple Hearts Reunited, which went to work verifying that Ashman’s great-uncle was the same Edward J. Ryan on the medal.
“It’s really cool when (the Lost Hearts database) works,” said Erin Faith Allen, operations director for the organization. “We can reach straight out to the family and give them the surprise of a lifetime.”
Johnson’s father, Scott, said Saturday that he had purchased the metal box at a flea market for a dollar or two about seven years ago. He lives on a lake in Cotton, Minn., and planned to use it as a tackle box.
But it was left forgotten in a drawer. Until Ben Johnson found it.
Scott Johnson lives just 20 miles from Makinen, Minn., where Ryan grew up.
The modern Purple Heart first was issued in 1932, but the precursor to it — the Badge of Military Merit — was established by Gen. George Washington in 1782, according to the U.S. Army’s website. Since then, the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor estimates that more than 1.8 million Purple Hearts have been awarded.
Ashman struggled to express how much it meant to finally have the medal back.
“For me, I feel like I’ve accomplished something for (my grandmother), getting it back in the family,” he said. “I’m positive my grandmother is very happy.”