This week 236 years ago, Gen. George Washington came up with a way to honor some soldiers wounded in the American Revolution.
It was called the "Badge of Military Merit."
The badge eventually came to be called the "Purple Heart."
Back in 2000, Mike Stevens met a Marine from central Pennsylvania who earned a Purple Heart in World War II.
The Marine helped occupy Japan after nuclear blasts rocked the island nation. The first was on this date in 1945.