Lost Purple Heart Found In Online Sale Returns To Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Cpl. Edmund C. Vance, a Morristown native, was wounded in action in New Guinea during World War II. Nobody could've known that 77 years later, his Purple Heart would show up in an online-sale listing.

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But nonprofit Purple Hearts Reunited recovered it and delivered the Purple Heart on Nov. 12 to American Legion Post 59 of Morristown.

Vance — born Aug. 14, 1920 — was a private serving in Company B of the 114th Engineer Battalion. He was wounded in action in Saidor, New Guinea, on April 6, 1944. Vance served two years in the South Pacific, and the medal was delivered to his mother, Emma, at his home on Market Street in Morristown.

Vance returned to Morristown, where he continued to live until his death on Feb. 18, 1985. It remains unclear how the Purple Heart got misplaced or lost.

“We rescued this medal when it was being sold online," said Erin Faith Allen, operations director of Purple Hearts Reunited." It was from a collector. That is not always the case when we find these medals, but it does happen."

No known relatives of the corporal could be found, so Vance's medal was presented to the leadership of the American Legion Post 59 of Morristown.

Purple Hearts Reunited, in operation for about 10 years, has recovered about 1,050 medals of valor, including Bronze Stars, and has returned about 800 to families or other “homes of honor,” such as the American Legion.

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