MIFFLINBURG -- Sixty-four years after a chunk of Nazi shrapnel pierced his right arm, World War II veteran Robert Hyle finally has a Purple Heart.
Hyle, 82, received the medal on Memorial Day, at a surprise ceremony in New Berlin. His wife, Marilyn, and a family friend duped him into thinking her son was the one being honored. Hyle stood, camera in hand, ready to snap some photos. But when he heard his own name called, he was floored.
"It was a surprise," Hyle modestly admitted Wednesday.
The truth is that after a lifetime of waiting, the Mifflinburg resident didn't think he'd ever get his Purple Heart.
"After all that time, I didn't think it was going to happen," he said.
Hyle's service record reads like a history textbook. He fought at Normandy, at Nuremberg, in Luxembourg -- his outfit's artillery helping drive the Nazis deeper and deeper into Germany. Hyle was calling in trajectory orders at the Battle of the Bulge, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right arm.
"I looked down and saw there was some blood," he said, though he explained he didn't at first realize he'd been hit.
The then-18-year-old was laid-up for a month at a hospital in Belgium. Then, as soon as his wound had healed, Hyle rejoined his men for the conclusion of the war.
The Purple Heart didn't breech his thoughts much, Hyle said, except when he read about other men receiving similar awards.
But in those moments, he wondered why the Army had overlooked him.
"Wounded in Germany," his service sheet read, right there in black and white.
For more than a half century, though, his twin entry and exit wound scars were all Hyle had to show for his bravery.
After All These Years...'
Hyle family friend Shirley Olive had a favor to call in at the New Berlin American Legion. She'd embroidered a high-ranking member's hat, and he was grateful enough to ask her if there was anything he could do in return.
"I do have one thing you could do for me," she'd told him. Could he find a way to get Robert Hyle the Purple Heart he's deserved since 1945?
As it turns out, he could.
"It was very emotional when they gave it to him," Olive said.
"His family was crowding around, it was touching. After all these years to see one of our World War II veterans honored, it was a great moment."
It's all still sinking in for Hyle, who wondered Wednesday how far his good luck would take him.
"Last weekend, I was the best man at my granddaughter's wedding. This weekend I got the Purple Heart," he said. "What's next?"
n E-mail comments to dgessel@dailyitem.com.
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Robert Hyle waited 64 years for Purple Heart
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