Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after April 5, 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, which took the form of a heart made of purple cloth, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members – the only earlier award being the obsolete Fidelity Medallion. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York.

This is the privately engraved Purple Heart Medal of Private First Class Peter Micheal Feely, who served with the 80th “Blue Ridge” Infantry Division during World War II. According to a note with the medal, According to Peter’s e suffered a grave head wound for which he had a steel plate in his head. Her mother told her “He was never the same after that.”

The Medal is engraved on the reverse:

PETER M. FEELY
2 MARCH 1945

The medal is numbered along the rim 391753. The medal comes in its original presentation case, the lid of which has unfortunately mostly broken off of the lower portion. There is no ribbon, and the pin is for his Good Conduct Medal.

Peter Micheal Feely was born on March 1st, 1918 in Manhattan, New York. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on June 3rd, 1944 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and was assigned to an Infantry Regiment of the 80th Infantry Division. He traveled overseas and saw heavy combat in the European Theater of Operations, being severely wounded in action on March 2nd, 1945 by a piece of shrapnel to his right temple, which led to his being invalided home and discharged, with his injury requiring several months of treatment and a plate in his head. As his wife had later said, he was never the same after that, and it severely affected his life over the years. According to a newspaper article, on April 22nd, 1950, he fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of his vehicle, swerving into a fire hydrant and a light pole. Feely passed away in January 1977, at the age of 59.

This is a very scarce medal to find privately engraved like this, It’s a gorgeous piece, ready for further research and display.