GROVE CITY — Carl Gildersleeve knows that sometimes rewards are a long time in coming. It took 62 years for him to receive his Purple Heart medal for being wounded during World War II.

U.S. Rep. Phil English presented the award to Gildersleeve, 87, during a ceremony June 24 at Orchard Manor nursing home in Grove City, where Gildersleeve lives.

"Marching dutifully into the battlefields of World War II, Mr. Gildersleeve served our nation with honor and distinction," English said. "We are forever indebted to him for his courage and sacrifice, and it is an honor to present him with such a distinguished award."

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed forces wounded by enemies during war.

Gildersleeve's knee was injured by shrapnel during an attack in Brest, France, in late summer 1944, 2½ months after Gildersleeve had survived storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

He was supposed to be shipped back to England for medical treatment, but his company was moving on to Belgium for more combat.

The attending doctor told Gildersleeve that if he left with his company instead of getting further medical care, the doctor would make sure he did not receive a Purple Heart.

Gildersleeve opted to leave with his company, and so never received the medal.

It is a story Gildersleeve's four children heard from time to time growing up, when Gildersleeve's knee ached. In recent years, however, Gildersleeve has developed Alzheimer's disease and the stories have stopped. For that reason, Gildersleeve's children began thinking of ways to preserve their father's exploits.

"My father's a very humble guy. He never would have pursued this on his own,"said his son, Andy. "We thought the fact that he sort of took the high ground shouldn't have been a penalty."

Gildersleeve's daughter, Shirley Dillaman of Grove City, agreed.

"It just seems to me that this was an injustice. He had a ... get out of jail free card,"Dillaman said. "He chose the honorable path and kept fighting. In effect, he was being penalized for continuing to fight."

So Gildersleeve's kids went to work to get him the medal they felt he had been cheated out of years before.

"We had very little evidence,"said Dillaman.

Dillaman contacted the Veterans Administration by letter in August 2002. She was told they would need to provide evidence that was more solid than her father's stories to be considered for the medal.

The search for evidence turned up a clipping from a local newspaper that had reported that Gildersleeve had been wounded in France, but the case was still weak. Since Gildersleeve's military records were destroyed in a fire in St. Louis with many others, the family would need to furnish the actual telegram the Army had sent to Gildersleeve's parents when he was wounded.

"I knew there was such a thing. I hunted through every scrap of paper in my dad's farmhouse,"Dillaman said.

But her search turned up nothing.

Fortunately, her cousin found the telegram one day while going through some papers in the house of Gildersleeve's brother.

While Dillaman continued to work with U.S. Rep Mike Doyle, a member of the Veterans Committee, to get the medal, Andy traveled to Europe to confirm the locations his father had said he had fought.

"We were trying to do what detective work we could to confirm where he was when he got wounded,"Andy said.

"Iwas pretty much able to confirm and see all the sites of that two-month period."

The family's research paid off, resulting in Gildersleeve receiving not only the Purple Heart, but a number of other medals as well, including a second Bronze Star and World War IIVictory Medal.

Gildersleeve had received his first Bronze Star for efforts during the Battle of Saint-Lo in 1944.