I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2875
To establish procedures for consideration of applications for award of the 
Purple Heart medal to veterans who were held as prisoners of war 
before April 25, 1962. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2003
Mr. JONES of North Carolina introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To establish procedures for consideration of applications for 
award of the Purple Heart medal to veterans who were 
held as prisoners of war before April 25, 1962.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. PROCEDURES FOR CONSIDERATION OF APPLI-
CATIONS 
FOR 
AWARD 
OF 
THE 
PURPLE 
HEART MEDAL TO VETERANS HELD AS PRIS-
ONERS OF WAR BEFORE APRIL 25, 1962. 
Subsection (b) of section 521 of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996 (Public Law 104–
106; 110 Stat. 309; 10 U.S.C. 1129 note) is amended to 
read as follows: 
‘‘(b) STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES FOR AWARD.—
In determining whether a former prisoner of war is eligible 
for the award of the Purple Heart under subsection (a), 
the Secretary concerned shall apply the following proce-
dures: 
‘‘(1) The standard to be used by the Secretary 
concerned for awarding the Purple Heart under this 
section shall be to award the Purple Heart in any 
case in which a prisoner of war (A) was wounded 
while in captivity, or (B) while in captivity was sub-
jected to systematic and prolonged deprivation of 
food, medical treatment, and other forms of depriva-
tion or mistreatment likely to have prolonged 
aftereffects on the individual concerned. 
‘‘(2) When a former prisoner of war applies for 
the Purple Heart under subsection (a), the Secretary 
concerned may request the former prisoner of war to 
provide any documentation that the Secretary would 
otherwise require, but failure of the former prisoner 
of war to provide such documentation shall not by 
itself be a disqualification for award of the Purple 
Heart.
‘‘(3) The Secretary concerned shall inform the 
former prisoner of war that historical information as 
to the prison camp or other circumstances in which 
the former prisoner of war was held captive and 
other information as to the circumstances of the 
former prisoner of war’s captivity may be considered 
by the Secretary in evaluating the application for the 
award of the Purple Heart and that the former pris-
oner of war may submit such information. 
‘‘(4) The Secretary concerned shall provide as-
sistance to the applicant for the Purple Heart in ob-
taining information referred to in paragraph (3). 
‘‘(5) The Secretary shall review a completed ap-
plication under this section based upon the totality 
of the evidence presented and shall take into account 
the length of time between the period during which 
the applicant was held as a prisoner of war and the 
date of the application. 
‘‘(6) In considering an application under this 
section, the Secretary shall take into account the 
length of time that the applicant was held in cap-
tivity, which while not in itself establishing entitle-
ment of the applicant to award of the Purple Heart, 
can and should be a factor in determining whether 
a former prisoner of war was likely to have been
wounded, starved, or denied medical treatment to 
the extent likely to have prolonged aftereffects on 
the individual concerned.’’.
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