SAN DIEGO -- A nonprofit that returns lost and stolen military medals to veterans or their families will deliver four Purple Hearts in Southern California, beginning in San Diego Thursday afternoon.
The first medal from Purple Hearts Reunited will go to the family of Eugene Victor Call, a U.S. Army technician killed in March 1945 in Germany. The New Hampshire resident, who was 32 when he died, served with a tank destroyer battalion during World War II.
Zachariah Fike of Purple Hearts Reunited said the medal was discovered by the son-in-law of Call's widow when he was going through his wife's belongings after she died.
A namesake great-nephew of Call's was located in Newport, New Hampshire, where a ceremony was held Monday, Fike said. Call's grandchildren were found in San Diego, and the medal will be given to them this afternoon in a ceremony at a private home in the Clairemont area.
Purple Hearts Reunited said other medals will be delivered Friday in Lake Elsinore, Hesperia and Burbank.
