This Thursday is Veterans Day, and Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs would like some help reaching a goal. He wants to return 11 unclaimed Purple Hearts to those who earned them, or to their families. It’s the job of the treasurer’s office to return unclaimed possessions and property to rightful owners. Purple Hearts, however, are especially challenging. The name is not engraved on them anywhere, and you cannot tell just by looking at them if they’re from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, or whatever time period it might be. As Frerichs recently told us, his team needs help.
AUDIO: People will come back from service, and the government, the military, will give them these awards. And they mean a lot to them, so they want them to be kept safe. They put them in a bank safe depoit box. But what we’ve found is that a long of young men or young women who come back and get these medals, maybe they haven’t settled down. Maybe they’re still moving, so they’ll give them to their parents or to a sibling for safe keeping. Who will then in turn put it in a safe deposit box. Then either they pass away, someone forgets about them, or the bank closes; and it gets turned over to us.
Since he became treasurer, Frerich’s office has returned seven Purple Hearts. But he still has 11, which came from banks in the following Illinois cities: Channahon, Chicago, Darien, Decatur, Homewood, Oak Park, O’Fallon, Peoria, Round Lake, and also one found in Portland Oregon that was traced back to Illinois.
If you would like more information, or think you have some information that might help one of these Purple Hearts find its way to the right family, you can find all of Treasurer Frerich’s contact information at illinoistreasurer.gov. To hear our entire interview on this with Treasurer Frerichs, go to https://omny.fm/shows/vcf-news-on-demand/interview-with-treasurer-frerichs-on-unclaimed-pur
