File:Purple Heart (141172804).jpg

English: On the back it says For Military Merit. Many are awarded posthumously. What surprised me is how heavy it is; in my case, much heavier than the AK-47 bullet that led to my getting a purple heart medal.

For more about this medal, see the entry in Wikipedia.
I enjoyed this part: "During World War II, nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured in anticipation of the estimated casualties resulting from the planned Allied invasion of Japan. To the present date, all the American military casualties of the sixty-five years following the end of World War II — including the Korean and Vietnam Wars — have not exceeded that number. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock. There are so many in surplus that combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan and United States are able to keep Purple Hearts on-hand for immediate award to wounded soldiers on the field." It's nice that the military overestimated casualties--that far fewer were killed or wounded than originally anticipated.
I had my Purple Heart pinned on my hospital pajamas by Gen Creighton Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, the morning after being wounded and my operation, as one of many wounded soldiers on stretchers on the lawn outside the military hospital near the air base in Saigon; there was no room for us indoors. I was one of 200,676 soldiers to receive a Purple Heart for Vietnam service.

Fortunately, my name is not included in this list.