According to an article from the Southeast Missourian dated November 15, 1952 and personal interview with Mr. King in July, 2008, James V. King, son of (the late) Mr. and Mrs. Alvin King of Fredericktown, was awarded the Purple Heart medal in ceremonies at the Army Organized Reserve Corps office in November, 1952.

King was wounded in action in Korea on January 29, 1951. At the time, King, then a corporal, was leader of an infantry rifle squad attempting to take a hill from the Communists. He was shot in the right elbow by a red tracer bullet and hospitalized at Camp Atterbury, Indiana for nine months.

After entering the service July, 1949, he received basic training at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas and joined the Third Division at Fort Benning, Georgia. He arrived in Korea in November of 1950.

Major Forrest Creamer presented the medal.