LEXINGTON, Mass. (WHDH) -- A lost Purple Heart medal belonging to a Lexington woman’s deceased brother has been found.
“It’s a miracle it really is,” said Connie Bachman.
Connie Bachman's brother, Lt. Thomas E. Hadley, was 22 when he died flying in a combat mission in Korea. The medal for his heroic actions that day, was lost. “60 years it had been lost,” Bachman said.
But a man states away, helped get it back into the right hands. In Pennsylvania where the family once lived, Larry Moore’s grandfather had found the treasure in the trash at a sanitation center he ran.
It was passed down to his son who passed it on to Moore.
“I know my father had tried before in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s without the internet. I was here one night, a week or so before Christmas I was by myself, grabbed the laptop, grabbed the Purple Heart and started Googling. This time somehow I came up with the military order of the Purple Heart,” Moore said.
“And then down the ranks they found me,” Bachman said.
At first the Bachmans thought it was a scam, but when they called back, they verified it really was the military order of the Purple Heart.
The organization presented the Bachmans with a medal case, and their local U.S. representatives gave them a flag flown over the Capitol; forever memorializing Thomas Hadley’s sacrifice in 1951.
“There were six or eight fighter planes that were attacking a train in North Korea that was filled with ammunition. And one of the planes had been hit by fire and was slowly going down and that was his best friend.
“So, he dove down with his machine guns firing at the gun base to draw their attention so others could escape,” said Charlie Bachman.
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