Korean War veteran receives 2 Purple Hearts

OGDEN — Sixty years after serving as a Marine in the Korean War, Robert Wahlen received two Purple Hearts on Saturday.

Wahlen's family orchestrated the ceremony as a surprise. It wasn't until he arrived at the George Wahlen Veterans Home that he realized what was in store for him.

Wahlen's daughter Debbie Williams had put the wheels in motion for her father to receive the medals, assisted by Blake Wahlen, son of George Wahlen, for whom the veterans home is named and also a cousin of Robert Wahlen.

"Nobody gets wounded twice and doesn't get a Purple Heart," Williams said.

"So I thought, I'm going to get those Purple Hearts for him."

Surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Wahlen shook the hands of longtime friends and veterans from the Ogden area. Sen. Orrin Hatch, fresh off a flight from Washington, D.C., came to shake Wahlen's hand and pin one of the medals on his suit coat.

The second medal was presented by Mabel Wahlen, George Wahlen's widow.

"It makes me proud to be an American, to even have an opportunity to serve my country," Robert Wahlen said.

Wahlen's family and friends described him as a Marine, family man and hard worker. But the word on everyone's lips was "humble." Despite earning two of them, Wahlen had never asked for a Purple Heart.

"I didn't think about it very much," Wahlen said. "I went home, went to work and had seven kids."

It was only because his family secretly coordinated with the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs to secure his medals that he received them.

Wahlen was in the thick of the Korean War from 1950 to 1952, serving with the 5th Marines, or the "Fighting Fifth," on the front lines. Wahlen's first medal was a result of his taking shrapnel to the leg.

His second medal was for injuries he suffered when a concussion grenade blasted him out of a foxhole. Today, "souvenirs" of his time in the war include arthritis and damaged feet from severe winters spent huddled in tents.

"He's very proud of his country," Williams said, "and he's proud of his service. He doesn't expect anything. He just did what he had to do."

On Saturday, he quietly thanked his family and offered an abridged version of the time he spent in Korea. Then the nearly 80-year-old Wahlen stood at attention, his back ramrod straight, as the two medals were pinned to his chest.

"I think he was real pleased," Hatch said. "And he should be. This man is a hero."

Wahlen isn't the only veteran who earned medals in wartime but still has yet to receive them.

"We don't know about situations like Mr. Wahlen's until the family comes forward and says, 'He never got this,' " said Darin Farr, the senior projects coordinator for the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs.

Farr spends most of his time working with veterans after they've left the service, but occasionally his job includes events like Saturday's.

e-mail: gbarker@desnews.com