Id’d Cased Marine Corps Purple Heart “Guam 7-24-44”

A World War II Navy / Marine Corps Purple Heart with large ribbon bar in the original purple “coffin” case. The decoration has the gilt split brooch and it is privately hand engraved in a very fine style with “Guam 7-24-44”. Beneath the interior pad of the case was found the the transmittal letter forwarding the Purple Heart from Marine Corps Headquarters to the Director of the Navy Hospital in Virginia, dated January of 1945, and requesting that the decoration be presented to the Marine named in the letter, Private Joseph R. Young Jr., USMCR, who had been wounded on July 24 of 1944. There is some relatively minor wear to the gilt on the upper left front edge of the Purple Heart, and there is some separation of the interior material where the decoration was pinned to the interior pad. Otherwise the set is in excellent condition. Private Young must have been seriously wounded during the fight for Guam, as he was obviously evacuated back to the States and he was still in the hospital six months later.