Yesterday, 7 August was Purple Heart Day in the United States, as President Trump noted on his social media. The prestigious military decoration is given to those wounded or killed in action who demonstrated extraordinary skills and bravery while serving in any branch of the United States Armed Forces against a foreign enemy.
It has been given to around 2 million soldiers since 1932. Its predecessor, the Badge of Military Merit was created by the first President of the United States and the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the great George Washington himself, in 1782.
General Douglas McArthur was the first to be presented with the Purple Heart in 1932, for his services during World War I in the rank of Colonel.
There is no exclusion in its eligibility criteria for foreign-born soldiers. In fact, there are two Hungarian men who not only got the Purple Heart, but the Medal of Honor as well, the highest military decoration in the US which has only been awarded to 3,536 recipients so far since its establishment in 1862.
Tibor ‘Ted’ Rubin was born in Pásztó, Hungary in 1929. He grew up in a Jewish family. During the Holocaust, he was apprehended while trying to flee to Switzerland and was kept in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria until American troops liberated it in 1945.
He emigrated to the United States in 1948, originally taking on his father’s profession as a shoemaker. In 1949, he tried to enlist in the US Army but was denied due to failing an English language test. He tried again in 1950, and, with the help of his fellow applicants, he passed that time.
Corporal Rubin earned his Medal of Honor and two Purple Hearts for his actions during the Korean War.
He was serving in I Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, First Cavalry Division, and was deployed to Korea in July 1950. In a heroic feat, he defended a position on a hill by himself against the incoming waves of North Korean soldiers. He was wounded and captured by Chinese troops in October 1950, and spent 30 months in a POW camp in China. During his encampment, he routinely risked his life to steal food from Chinese and North Korean supply depots that he shared with his fellow POWs.
After he was discharged from service in 1953, he settled down in Garden Grove, California and worked in his brother’s liquor store. Rubin passed away in 2015 at age 86.
László Rábel, however, did not have the chance to enjoy his veteran life.
He was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1937 and emigrated to the United States after the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He joined the US Army in 1965, and shortly afterwards was deployed in Vietnam as part of the 74th Infantry Detachment (Long Range Patrol), 173rd Airborne Brigade.
In 1968,
Staff Sergeant Rábel threw himself on a grenade hurled by a Vietnamese soldier to smother its impact and save his fellow soldiers.
He succeeded but at the expense of his own life.
He died at the age of 31 in Binh Dinh Province, Republic of Vietnam. For his heroism, Rábel was posthumously awarded two Purple Hearts and the Medal of Honor as well.
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