ST. PETER — Pain from the old piece of shrapnel lodged in his left thigh reminds Earl “Sonny” Meyer every day of a horrific battle he survived.
“Some days the pain is less than on others,” said the 96-year-old St. Peter veteran of two wars.
On Friday, Meyer was given a new memento of his military service. His Purple Heart medal represents the nation’s gratitude for his courage while under fire.
Almost 73 years after he was wounded in the Korean War, Meyer was presented with the honor during an afternoon ceremony in Christ Chapel at Gustavus Adolphus College.
“I didn’t know this was going to be such as big deal,” he said to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar as they stood in front of a crowd of well-wishers including family and several St. Peter townsfolk, including Post 37 American Legion members.
After a letter from President Joe Biden’s office was read to attendees, Minnesota National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Jason Rost, along with Klobuchar, presented the award to Meyer.
During the ceremony Rost, who was born in Seoul and came to the United States after he was adopted, added his personal thanks to the day’s honoree.
“I am certain that my life and my service would not be possible without the sacrifice and service of men and women like yourself,” Rost said. “Thank you.”
Meyer declined to speak at the event, which featured glowing remarks from Minnesota’s senior U.S. senator as well as Gustavus’ president, St. Peter’s mayor and Army National Guard representatives.
The invocation was given by retired Army officer Dave Johnson, who referred to Meyer as “a hero among us.”
At the beginning and conclusion of the ceremony, an honor guard from the Maverick ROTC Battalion presented and retired the official colors. The uniformed college students are about the same age Meyer was when he was drafted into the Army in November 1950.
An infantry rifleman and machine-gunner, Meyer was hit by a mortar fragment in June 1951 while his platoon was fighting enemy forces on mountainous terrain not too far from the border between North Korea and South Korea.
The medic who bandaged Meyer’s wounds said a Purple Heart was in order. However, the paperwork that man would have needed to fill out was never submitted.
“It’s possible he was killed,” said Meyer, who was one of only four U.S. servicemen who survived the battle.
One of the reasons for the delay in his Purple Heart ceremony was that Meyer had no eyewitnesses to verify he was injured.
“That was the holdup,” he said Thursday evening during a family gathering at his home.
After he returned to St. Peter, Meyer focused on his farm and family. He and his wife, Betty, raised three daughters.
“I’ve always been grateful that I had girls, not boys who might have had to go through what I did,” Meyer said.
About 10 years ago, after hearing from their dad that he’d been injured in battle, Barb Wright, of St. Peter, Cindy Meyer, of Le Sueur, and Sandy Baker, of New Buffalo, Michigan, urged him to get his Purple Heart, the nation’s honor for soldiers wounded or killed in battle.
“This was not something I would have pursued by myself; it was all due to the girls’ efforts,” he said.
“We are proud of what he did,” Wright said, adding her family hopes their efforts help other veterans get the honors they deserve.
Baker described spending hours and hours requesting documents and researching whatever files they were able to obtain. She showed off a small but important detail uncovered in their search. The scrap of paper dated June 11, 1951, originated in an Army surgical hospital.
“It’s a note about Dad getting a tetanus shot; they only give those when someone has an injury from something metal,” Baker said.
The sisters’ first attempts at having the honor approved were denied. After hearing about those thwarted efforts, Minneapolis attorney Alan M. Anderson stepped in to help. Anderson, the son of a Purple Heart recipient, filed several appeals regarding the military’s decision.
For years, Klobuchar’s office advocated for recognition of the vet as well as assisting his family with securing documentation. Her father, the late journalist Jim Klobuchar, had been at the same Army basic training camp where Meyer had been assigned.
During Friday’s ceremony, Klobuchar spoke of her special connections with Korean War veterans, especially Meyer, who she became acquainted with during her work on the 2020 Merchant Mariners of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act. Meyer’s Gold Medal was presented by representatives of the senator’s office in August at St. Peter’s Legion Post.
Anderson said that Meyer’s family, the senator and he slogged through until they finally achieved their goal.
Meyer’s comments, when first told his Purple Heart was on its way, were about his Army buddies who had died in Korea, Anderson told the audience.
Vietnam veteran John Jensen, of Mankato, sat in a wheelchair during the ceremony, near his wife, Norma, who was seated in a Christ Chapel pew.
“When I first heard about this I thought, ‘Why don’t they just have this at the Legion?… Now I see this is way better,” Jensen said.