Deceased Vietnam veteran’s Purple Heart is returned to his family

A long-lost Purple Heart found its way back to the Vietnam veteran who received it this morning in a ceremony at Calverton National Cemetery.

Riley, who passed away last December, gave his Purple Heart to his sister Geraldine Turner for safekeeping more than 35 years ago. Earlier this week, it was found in a bank safe deposit box she’d rented when the box was opened by the State of Illinois following Turner’s death.

“Lori likes to write on Facebook,” funeral director Karen Heppner said this morning at the cemetery, where a small crowd gathered for a ceremony Heppner arranged where Riley’s Purple Heart was presented to his family.

“On the morning of Nov. 5, she writes about a dream she had of Willie and how much she misses him,” Heppner said. “And on Nov. 5 in the evening we hear they’ve found his Purple Heart.”

It was the first time she’d dreamt of Willie since he passed, his widow said in an interview this week. “It was so real. He was wearing his favorite cowboy hat and he came and gave me a big kiss,” Lori Riley said. Nov. 5 was an emotional day for her. The couple would have celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year.

Officials in Illinois contacted the funeral director and shipped the medal to the funeral home. Heppner put together today’s special Veterans Day ceremony, which included prayers and words of comfort offered by the Rev. Patrick McNamara of Church of the Redeemer in Mattituck and “Amazing Grace” and “God Bless America” performed by soloist Xann Greenidge of Riverhead. A member of Rep. Lee Zeldin’s staff presented the family with a certificate of special congressional recognition and a flag that has flown over the U.S. Capitol.

Riley’s four children — two of whom serve in the military — surrounded their mother during the ceremony.

He’d lost track of the medal, Lori Riley said. It bothered him that he didn’t have it and didn’t know where it was, she said. The Vietnam veteran also had received four Bronze Star Medals, which are awarded to members of the U.S. Armed Forces for either heroism or meritorious service in a combat zone.

The Army specialist was severely injured when the tank he was in hit a land mine. The explosion threw him 50 feet into the air, his wife said. The Purple Heart is a military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving.