Vinita Veteran Honored Posthumously With A Purple Heart

It’s been 82 years since Elmer Vanover, known as Red for his hair color, was freed from a POW camp after World War II. And while he has since passed away, his family accepted a Purple Heart on his behalf on Tuesday that was recommended decades ago.

It wasn’t until Tim Vanover’s father died that the family even knew he was eligible for this honor, and for the last ten years, Tim has made it his mission to get it.

“I knew that my dad was a prisoner of war, me and my sister both,” said Tim. “We didn’t talk about it much because it brought up things that he didn’t want to recall, but he recalled them anyway every day.”

Tim remembers moments in his childhood when his dad would start gazing into space, reliving what he went through on the island of Luzon when he was a Prisoner of War. He survived the Bataan Death March and more than three years as a POW. But Tim said his father suffered silently while raising his kids and working.

“My father told my little sister on his deathbed that he wasn’t afraid to die,” said Tim, choking up. “He just hated to leave his loved ones, but he’d lived in hell his entire life, and he was ready to go.”

Red was at rest, but Tim couldn’t rest. He didn’t get to say goodbye to his dad, so he found a way to honor him.

“This is my way of telling my dad goodbye and that I loved him,” said Tim.

Two months ago, the office of Senator Markwayne Mullin, R- OK, learned about Tim’s mission to honor his dad with the Purple Heart.

“Everybody had the same reaction that I did,” said Mullin. "This is a Bataan Death March guy that never got his Purple Heart, are you kidding me? Let’s make this quick.”

On Tuesday, Corporal Elmer Vanover was posthumously honored with the Purple Heart for “wounds received in action on 9 April 1942.”

The heart will never be in the hands of the man it belongs to, but it has the power to heal his son’s.

“And I know dad’s resting in peace but now I can rest in peace,” said Tim. “Thank you.”