Captain Zachariah Fike grew up in a military family. He’s spent the past 13 years in the National Guard in New York, West Virginia and, now, in Vermont. Fike has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan three times, and was awarded a purple heart for injuries he sustained a year and a half ago in Bagram, Afghanistan.
But Captain Fike has become more closely associated with that medal of honor because he has found and returned two Purple Hearts to family members of the original recipients. And he plans to do the same for more medals from wars dating back nearly a century.
He spoke with VPR’s Jane Lindholm about the process.