Our president awards the Purple Heart to troops injured or killed while in combat. Now the the United States Postal Service is honoring those servicemembers' sacrifices with a new stamp that depicts the Purple Heart, and the agency has chosen the the USS Midway in San Diego Bay as the place to unveil the new stamp. The special ceremony will take place Thursday at 11 a.m., marking the Purple Heart stamp's first day of issue.
President George Washington, whose face adorns the Purple Heart, first ordered the creation of the award back in 1782, according to the Post Office. It was a very American thing to do:
Our country stopped awarding the Purple Heart after the Revolutionary War ended, but started back up again in 1932 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birthday.
