DAPHNE, Ala. — Veterans organizations, local leaders and residents gathered at the Daphne Civic Center the evening of Friday, Aug. 7, to honor Purple Heart recipients and their families at a “Purple Heart Salute” ceremony held on Purple Heart Day.
The event was hosted by the Mobile Bay Area Veterans Commission and the South Alabama Veterans Council. Roughly 50 Purple Heart recipients attended, traveling from Alabama and several other states, including Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Wisconsin and New York. The evening featured a keynote address from Jack Hawkins, the longtime chancellor of Troy University and a two-time Purple Heart recipient himself.
“What I think about tonight is first of all, I’m proud to be an American,” said retired U.S. Army Col. Phil Quigley, vice president of marketing for the Mobile Bay Veterans Commission. “What’s awesome about this too is it brings everyone together. Unites everyone together, and as Dr. Jack Hawkins, the chancellor of Troy [University], said, it doesn’t matter, we’re a brotherhood, sisterhood, and we should all be proud to be Americans, and that’s the way I felt sitting up there on stage.”
Among those honored was Army Pfc. Joseph “Dile” Chancery, who was killed during the Korean War at age 20 and was listed as missing in action for 75 years. In 2021, as part of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s Korean War Disinterment Project, remains were exhumed from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu and sent to the DPAA laboratory for forensic examination. Through DNA analysis, anthropological review, dental records and corroborating historical evidence, scientists identified the remains as Chancery’s.
He was returned home and laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday, Aug. 8, at Lottie United Methodist Church Cemetery just outside Atmore.
Leaster Kelly, Chancery’s niece, said the return of her uncle’s remains has helped bring her family closer together. “Everybody loved him and he always wanted to be a soldier, and he did get to do that,” Kelly said at Friday’s ceremony. “I just wished I had grown up with Dile, but we didn’t get to do that. That wasn’t in the cards for us, but it’s so wonderful, him being home. It’s going to bring so much closure, and we’re just looking forward to seeing all the stories about him tomorrow.”
Purple Heart Day, observed annually on Aug. 7, recognizes U.S. service members wounded or killed in action. The medal itself dates back to George Washington’s 1782 Badge of Military Merit, making it the oldest military decoration still in use today.