48 Marines & One Sailor Receive Purple Hearts

Forty-Eight Marines and A Sailor received Purple Hearts at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay for their service in Iraq. The last group of third Battalion Marines returned home on Oct. 5. Eleven Marines with the third Battalion and three troops attached to the unit has been killed in Iraq since March.The battalion's executive officer Major Patrick Beckett said the troops saw very few quiet days. A total of 88 were wounded. The most serious injuries include a leg amputation as a result of a roadside bomb and a gunshot would that caused partial paralysis. The ceremony included the families of soldiers killed in action.