Photo By Avery Schneider | Retired U.S. Army Pfc. Justin Oaks poses for a photo next to a Humvee after being...... read more read more
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Retired U.S. Army Pfc. Justin Oaks, a former military police officer and current Glenville, Pennsylvania resident, was presented the Purple Heart nearly 20 years after he earned it during combat in Iraq.
With help from New York National Guardsmen, Oaks was formally presented the medal during a ceremony in Buffalo's historic Connecticut Street Armory – an honor he never received during his time in uniform.
Oaks, a Jamestown, New York native, enlisted into the active-duty Army in 2004 and was stationed at then-Fort Hood, Texas. He served in various law enforcement roles with the 110th and 410th military police companies under the 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade.
In late June 2006, Oaks deployed with the 410th to Camp Stryker in Baghdad, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
On November 3 that year, the company was conducting combat operations in Abu Amer in the Wasit province of the country. Oaks was the lead gunner in a convoy when his Humvee was struck by an improvised explosive device.
The force of the blast knocked him unconscious, and his skull was cracked when his head hit the Humvee’s turret.
Oaks was moved to another vehicle and evacuated.
“I woke up at the [troop medical clinic] at Camp Stryker. I had blood in my eyes. I couldn’t hear anything. Confused, I didn’t know what was going on,” Oaks recalled.
Three days later, he was back on duty.
Oaks’ injuries during the explosion had earned him the Purple Heart but the medal wasn’t added to his military record.
Oaks waited a long time to get his military record amended and dealt with personal challenges in the meantime – namely losing his brother Todd, who joined the Army in 2003 and mentored Oaks during his time in uniform. Todd died just months before Oaks was honorably discharged in 2008.
“I had to get through the battle in my mind first, and that was the roughest part,” he said. “For years, I hadn't been able to figure out the piece that was missing. I felt like I couldn’t rest.”
Oaks said he eventually got up enough courage to request his record to be amended.
He received a letter of approval from the Army in April 2024 and a certificate was mailed to him.
“It felt like this weight was lifted off my shoulders. I mean, I could breathe again. I could think straight,” Oaks said.
But the letter also told Oaks that awards and decorations such as the Purple Heart should be “presented with an appropriate degree of formality in a fitting ceremony.”
The request to do just that made its way to the New York National Guard’s Buffalo-based 153rd Troop Command, and a ceremony was planned at the unit’s headquarters in the historic Connecticut Street Armory.
“While the award we’re presenting may be late, it’s no less important than if you were to receive it in Iraq in front of your brothers in arms,” Col. William Snyder, the 153rd's executive officer, told Oaks before calling him to stand in front Soldiers from the brigade and Oaks’ family and friends, and pinning the medal to his collar.
“The Purple Heart is unlike any other medal we wear. It isn't sought out. It’s not given for achievement, merit, or skill,” Snyder said. “It is earned through great personal sacrifice and risk to one’s life that few citizens in American can understand.”
The Purple Heart dates to the earliest days of the United States.
Gen. George Washington established the medal in 1782 during the Revolutionary War – then calling it the “Badge of Military Merit” – with the intent of recognizing courage and dedication among enlisted ranks that often went unnoticed.
The badge was awarded to just three sergeants for “singularly meritorious action,” and then faded into obscurity for the 150 years after the war.
In 1932, on the 200th anniversary of Washington’s birth, the U.S. War Department revived and reimagined the decoration. The modern Purple Heart was born, featuring a profile of Washington on a heart-shaped medal, draped in royal purple and edged with gold.
Since then, it has been awarded to an estimated 1.8 million servicemembers wounded or killed in combat.
“It's just a great honor,” Oaks said.
The 153rd's Soldiers lined up to shake Oaks’ hand, congratulate him, and thank him following the ceremony. Being surrounded by them felt like being at home again, Oaks said.
Besides the brother he'd lost, Oaks said it was with the Soldiers that he’d found his missing piece.
“It was the Army – believe it or not – the Army that I’d missed most,” he said.
--Pfc. Justin Oaks--
Pfc. Justin Oaks is a native of Jamestown, New York, and current resident of Greenville, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Bradford Area High School in 2004 and completed combined basic training and advanced individual training in the U.S. Army Military Police Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Oaks was stationed at then-Fort Hood, Texas in 2005 and served more than four years on active duty.
His awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, Combat Action Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Ribbon.
The record of Oaks’ Purple Heart and how he earned it, along with many others, is now part of the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New York’s Hudson River Valley. The hall is a New York State Parks Site with the mission to collect, preserve and share the stories of all Purple Heart recipients.
| Date Taken: | 05.17.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.17.2025 17:09 |
| Story ID: | 498261 |
| Location: | BUFFALO, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | BRADFORD, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Hometown: | GREENVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Hometown: | JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 315 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Long Overdue Purple Heart Delivered with Help from NY National Guard, by Avery Schneider, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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