Major General Mathew B. Ridgway awarded this Purple Heart to John Hall “Jack” Thompson, wartime newspaper correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, for the injury he received parachuting into Sicily with the 82nd Airborne’s 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment in July 1943. In the Fall of 1942, Thompson became the first American reporter to make a combat jump when he accompanied the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion’s jump into Algiers. On June 6th, 1941 he landed with the 1st Infantry Division on Omaha Beach. After the war ended, he returned to Chicago and continued to work for the Chicago Tribune as the military editor and devoted time working for veteran programs until retiring after a 40-year career in 1972.