Day landings and is already much decorated, not least being a recipient of France’s top military medal the Legion D’Honneur.

Leonard F Pryor's medals "were passed to me a few years ago, as his namesake," his great-grandson Leonard Lawson told Newsweek.

Both the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart came from the Badge of Military Merit. It was the first award meant for enlisted troops. Before this, the only way to recognize heroism by an enlisted ...