To observe Purple Heart Day, WATM is celebrating some of the heroes we’ve featured on the site who kept fighting after they were wounded:
1. Air Force combat controller Robert Gutierrez thought he would die within three minutes after being shot through the lung in Afghanistan, but he kept calling in air strikes, saving his element and earning himself the Air Force Cross.
More: This combat controller kept taking it to the enemy after he was shot in the chest
2. Joe Pinder left professional baseball to volunteer for the Army in World War II. He was wounded almost immediately after leaving his boat on D-Day, but refused medical aid and searched through the surf and chaos to find missing radio equipment. He finished finding and assembling the missing equipment right before he was killed.
More: Meet the 4 heroes who earned Medals of Honor for heroism on D-Day
3. Marine Cpl. Brady Gustafson kept directing heavy fire on insurgents despite an RPG partially amputating his leg.
Now check this out: 8 post-9/11 heroes who should have received the Medal of Honor — but didn’t
4. Jack Lummus shrugged off wounds from two grenades to take out three hidden Japanese positions in World War II.
More: 13 professional baseball players who became war heroes
5. Nine Green Berets and Afghan Commandos were seriously wounded but kept fighting in the Battle of Shok Valley, including Staff Sgt. Daniel Behr who had his leg nearly amputated by enemy fire at the start of the conflict but stayed in the fight for another 6 hours.
More: This single Afghan battle resulted in 10 Silver Stars and an Air Force Cross
6. Five of the medics on this list continued aiding other wounded after they were injured themselves, some continuing to render medical attention until they died of their own wounds.
More: 10 incredible Post-9/11 combat medics who risked their lives to save others
7. The possible first casualty on D-Day was an airborne lieutenant who was mortally wounded before jumping into Normandy, meaning he could have stayed on the plane and sought medical attention. He led his paratroopers out the door anyway.
More: 7 crazy facts you didn’t know about the D-Day invasion
8. 2nd Lt. Daniel Inouye was shot just before he took out two German machine gun nests with grenades and a Thompson submachine gun. Then, after his arm was nearly severed by an enemy grenade, he took out a third machine gun nest.