releases: https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3645
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3645 | Vietnam veteran receives Purple Heart 56 years after being wounded | 2023-11-10 | 2023 | 2023-11 | Democrat | House | PA | Chrissy Houlahan | H001085 | houlahan.house.gov | houlahan | https://houlahan.house.gov/press/documentquery.aspx | page_html | Originally Published in the Pottstown Mercury SOUTH COVENTRY — More than 50 years ago, Robert Fields was shot in the head, twice in the same month. Fields, then serving in Vietnam with the U.S. Army, was wounded badly enough the second time he had to spend six weeks recovering in a hospital in Japan. But despite his injuries, he never sought the Purple Heart he had earned. Like many veterans who have seen war, Fields, a resident of Reading, did not talk much about the experience. “But you should never underestimate the determination of a military wife,” observed U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan. The child of a 30-year Navy veteran and herself a retired captain in the U.S. Air Force, she knows a thing or two about military spouses. Elizabeth Fields started with the Veterans Administration when she began her secret effort to get her husband’s Purple Heart awarded. She didn’t have much luck there, so she turned to Houlahan’s office, and her quest was put in the hands of aide Andrew Lippert, himself a U.S. Air Force Veteran. A few months later, “my office was able to surprise (Fields) with the news,” that his Purple Heart had been secured, Houlahan said during a veterans ceremony Friday at Owen J. Roberts High School, where she pinned the medal on Fields in front of a crowd of fellow veterans, students and staff from the school. “This is my first time doing this, I hope I don’t mess it up,” she joked. The first time he was hit, Fields, a sergeant, received a concussion and was put on “light duty” for several days. After returning to combat, he was struck again, again in the head, and this time the bullet pierced his helmet and “carved a furrow along his skull,” Houlahan said. | 1 | 2026-04-08T14:14:11Z | 2026-04-08T14:23:06Z |