The Department of Defense has expanded the criteria for Purple Heart eligibility by allowing prisoners of war who died in captivity to receive the award. Unless compelling evidence is presented to the contrary, DOD’s new policy presumes that the death of service members in captivity as POWs incurred either as a result of enemy action, as a result of enemy action during capture, or in action with the enemy during capture, DOD said in a statement issued Monday. The revised policy allows for retroactive award of the Purple Heart to qualifying POWs since Dec. 7, 1941, DOD said.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.