19 News: Purple Heart medal returned to Vietnam veteran’s family after nearly 60 years
The family of Staff Sgt. Curtis Patton gathered this week to receive a Purple Heart medal that had been missing for nearly 60 years — a reunion made possible by a stranger’s discovery in a Texas apartment.
Patton died in the Vietnam War in February 1968. He earned a Purple Heart for his service, but the medal disappeared and his family never knew where it went.
The answer came this past Memorial Day weekend, when Candice Johnson found the medal during an apartment cleanout in Texas.