Purple Heart Presented to Naval Officer

Wounded on D-day when the LST he was riding went down off the southern coast of France, Lieutenant (jg) Jerome Dobin USNR received the Purple Heart medal from Commander M. E. Paradise, officer-in-charge, Naval Training Schools (Communications) at a ceremony in the Yard Wednesday morning.

Lieutenant Dobin's boat set out from a port somewhere in Italy on August 15, 1914, to join a fleet of over 1,000 ships engaged in the landings, in South France. LST 282, the one to which the lieutenant was assigned, was destined to be the only ship sunk in the entire action. After 20 minutes in the water, the men on the life raft were picked up by the crew of one of the other Allied vessels in the D-day engagement.

A newcomer to Harvard's communications school, Lieutenant Dobin has been in the Navy for almost two years. The citation presented to him by Commander Paradise bears the signature of Admiral Lowrie, commander of the 8th Amphibious Forces. The entire contingent of officers enrolled in the three months' communications course witnessed the presentation.