Family of Warren man gets his Purple Heart 90 years after war

Chuck Haga Grand Forks Herald
Published Monday, January 12, 2009

http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=101277&section=homepage

 

Gust Bodell was 23, farming with his Swedish immigrant father just east of Warren, Minn., when the U.S. Army called in 1917 and shipped him over to Europe and World War I. Near the end of the war, in fierce fighting at Verdun, France, on Oct. 23, 1918, Bodell heard the shriek of an approaching German artillery shell.
"Jump!" he hollered, and he jumped himself, but the shell exploded and Gust took shrapnel in his left arm.

The three men who had been in the foxhole with him didn't jump, and they were killed. "He was always slim and quick as lightning," said Gladys Bodell, who was married to one of Gust's sons, the late Marvin Bodell. "That's how I think he survived, jumping out of that foxhole."
Gust never received the Purple Heart he was due for his wound. He wore a heavy leather brace on his arm, wrist to elbow, for the rest of his life. Members of the family remember seeing him strap it onto the withered arm each morning as he prepared for chores.
"He could move his thumb, and the four fingers moved together," Gladys Bodell said, but there was little to the arm beyond bone and brace.
Until he died in 1965 at age of 71, Gust made no attempt to obtain the medal.
"I think it was because he lost his buddies," Gladys Bodell said. "He didn't talk a lot about it. When I asked him, 'Where's your Purple Heart?' he'd just say, 'Oh, they forgot about us World War I veterans.' "
But Gladys didn't forget.
She lost her husband in 2002, and the last of Gust's seven children died a little more than a year ago. But Gladys kept thinking about the slight to her soldier father-in-law, and earlier this year — with help from Duane Nielsen, former Veterans Service Officer for western Marshall County — she finally did something about it.
At her request, military authorities checked records from the war. It was a chancy search; many Army records from World War I were lost or damaged in a 1973 fire. But records confirming Gust Bodell's wartime service survived.
Now, 90 years after Gust was hurt, more than 40 years after he died, there's a Purple Heart bearing his name safe in the trust of his family.
The Army also sent a World War I Victory Medal, with a clasp signifying Gust's presence at St. Mihiel, one of the key World War I engagements involving American troops.
Why make the effort now?
It's so someone will always remember, Gladys Bodell said.
"I'll frame the medals and keep them in my house," she said, "and then I'll decide which of my six children will get them. I think maybe it will be my oldest daughter. She remembers him quite well."