Dad’s Lost Purple Heart Comes Home To Son Who Never Met Him

BURLINGTON, VT — Art Broaderick never got to meet his father. His mother was barely pregnant when Pvt. Earl Broaderick was deployed to France in 1944 to fight in World War II. He was killed a month later as he and his division attempted to cross the Moselle River, and his son was born seven months later.

Last week, Broaderick accepted the Purple Heart awarded to his father during what’s called a “return ceremony” arranged by Purple Hearts Reunited, a Burlington, Vermont-based nonprofit that returns lost or stolen medals to veterans and their families at no cost.

Until the ceremony, Broaderick didn’t have anything to remember his father by and only scant information about him. He met an uncle a couple of years ago and learned through him that his father had been hard-working and eager to serve during a time of extraordinary patriotism in America.

The Purple Heart has special significance because Art Broaderick was awarded one, too, after being wounded in Vietnam.

"This is like a huge Christmas gift," Broaderick told WNNE-TV. "I never, ever expected to have something like this."

The Purple Heart is a somber reminder of the sacrifice his father’s family made during World War II. Two brothers were already serving in the military when Earl Broaderick enlisted in 1944.

“We’re now with something that is very special to our family, probably more special than anything I can think of,” Art Broaderick said during the emotional return ceremony, arranged and paid for by Boy Scout Daniel Durgin as part of his Eagle Scout project.

“I always wondered how life would be. Of course, I have a wonderful wife and family,” he said, losing his composure. “That is something that was missing, and my brother feels the same way I do.”

Finding his dad’s Purple Heart wasn’t something Broaderick, who lives in Florida, was even pursuing. A woman found it in a thrift store in Florida and bought it, then turned it over to Purple Hearts Reunited.

After some research, Art Broaderick was located, the organization’s founder, Zach Fike said.

How the medal ended up at a thrift store is what Fike calls the “circumstances of life.” Sometimes, they’re found in old abandoned homes, vehicles and in furniture.

“Believe it or not,” Fike said, “these medals are turning up all over the country.”

Fike said the group has returned 400 lost medals to families since the organization was founded in 2012. The organization maintains a database of lost Purple Hearts. Some searches can be more challenging than others, and sometimes they reach a dead end and Purple Hearts Reunited turns to the public for help, as it is with a World War I-era Purple Heart awarded to Ernest H. Wright.

"We won't stop until we get all of these medals back where they need to be," Fike said. "To see Art, to get that medal back, to see that raw emotion, to have a small piece of his father back, that means the world to us."

Image and video via The Associated Press