CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A 73-year-old woman who had lost her uncle’s Purple Heart medal and other military medals, was reunited with them Monday morning at the Stone City VFW post in Joliet.
Army Air Force 1st Lt. Walter Ingledew, 23, was shot down over France and killed in 1944. His Purple Heart eventually wound up in the possession of his niece, Barbara Martens after her parents and grandparents had died.
But, Martens said that, in the early 2000s, while she was battling thyroid cancer, she had some short-term memory loss and forgot the medals were in a bank safe deposit box.
The state took possession of them when they were deemed unclaimed.
"It’s just a mixture of emotions today," she said.
She said she planned to go home, look at the Purple Heart and two Air Medals with four oak leaf clusters for acts of heroism or meritorious achievement, and think about the uncle she never knew. Martens was born a year after her uncle died.
This was the seventh Purple Heart that State Treasurer Mike Frerichs was able to return to a family. He said the state has 100 unclaimed military medals.
"We never auction off military medals. No one out there can purchase the valor and honor that was earned by their service to our country," he said.
Frerichs said some of the military medals date back to the Spanish-American War.