About This Stamp
With the issuance of the Purple Heart stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors the sacrifices of the men and women who serve in the U.S. military. The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to members of the U.S. military who have been wounded or killed in action. According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, an organization for combat-wounded veterans, the medal is "the oldest military decoration in the world in present use and the first award made available to a common soldier."
This stamp features a photograph by Ira Wexler of one of two Purple Hearts awarded to James Loftus Fowler of Alexandria, Virginia. Fowler was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines and was serving as battalion commander of the Third Battalion, Fourth Marines when he received this Purple Heart in 1968, following an action close to the Ben Hai River on the border between North and South Vietnam.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Carl T. Herrman
As an art director for the U.S. Postal Service® for more than 15 years, Carl T. Herrman designed more than 50 stamps and guided more than 250 stamp projects, including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, and Comic Strip Classics. He also served as art director for five of the Celebrate the Century stamp panes. He has won more than 260 awards for design and design management, including two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators.
Herrman’s career has included positions as Director of Creative Services and adjunct professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, and Director of Marketing and Publications for the University of California at Irvine. He has provided consulting services for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and numerous academic institutions. Herrman lives in Carlsbad,California.
Photographer
Ira Wexler
Ira Wexler, an award-winning advertising photographer, has been creating compelling images for more than forty years. A native of the Jersey Shore, Wexler has lived in the Washington, D.C. area since the early 1970s, working with clients such as Citibank, Coca-Cola, Exxon, Hilton Hotels, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard, Miller Beer, and McDonald’s. Prior to establishing his studio, Wexler was personal photographer to guitarist and singer-songwriter Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Founding president of the D.C. chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers and a national board member, Wexler is the author of The Business of Commercial Photography (Amphoto Books, New York) and is a frequent college lecturer.
Wexler's photographs appear on the Teddy Bear (1998), Purple Heart (2003), Hanukkah (2009), Purple Heart with Ribbon (2011), and Purple Heart Medal (2012, 2014, 2019) stamps.
Wexler lives on a mountaintop in Maryland near Camp David with his wife, Paula, and their three pugs.