A Texas woman offered a gift from the heart to a Vietnam veteran after his home took a direct hit from a tornado – a Purple Heart.
Kathleen Adkins of Sugar Land, Texas, heard Pete Ambrose of Weld County, Colo., had lost his two Purple Hearts in a tornado while he was busy warning three people to take cover, only seconds before the deadly twister struck Thursday, the Denver Post reported.
Ambrose quickly hid in his mobile home park bathroom while the tornado reduced his residence to rubble.
"Nothing on [the property] but cinder blocks," he told reporters. "When it was gone, it was gone. It was quiet."
The tornado destroyed the park, leaving strips of metal hanging from trees, remnants coated with thick layers of mud and sweeping his possessions away with his war mementos.
After Ambrose's story appeared on the local news, Adkins searched through her attic to find a Purple Heart that belonged to her cousin, Valentine Maciag, who had been killed in World War II. She had kept it in storage for years.
"This was my grandmother's pride and joy," she said. "She would have loved it to go to someone like Ambrose."
Ambrose was grateful but declined the medal, hoping to find his pair of Purple Hearts.
"I kept them in the drawer of the dresser," he said. "You lose thousands of things, but you put importance on just one or two items."
Ambrose, having served in the Vietnam War and the first Iraq War, was injured two times in Vietnam. Following discharge from the military, he and his wife became caretakers of Missile Silo Park and tended to residents on the grounds.
More than 100 volunteers arrived to help Ambrose clean up his mobile home park after the devastating tornado darkened the sky, collapsed power lines and demolished crops, kiling one person at the park, Oscar Michael Manchester, 52, when he tried to outrun the storm in his van.
When the group was busy sifting through remaining debris, a Boy Scout discovered one of the Purple Hearts and returned it to the veteran.
"One came up and said, 'Here you go,'" Ambrose said.
The scout handed him two boxes, one containing his Purple Heart and the second, only a single ribbon.
"That's all right," Ambrose said, happy that one of his medals had been returned. "You just keep looking."