{"id":135572,"date":"2026-05-28T22:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/135572\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:48:12","slug":"purple-heart-medal-awarded-to-arkansas-veteran-for-iraq-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/135572\/","title":{"rendered":"Purple Heart Medal awarded to Arkansas veteran for Iraq tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BROOKLAND, Ark. (<a data-ylk=\"slk:KTAL\/KMSS;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktalnews.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KTAL\/KMSS<\/a>) \u2014 A retired Arkansas National Guard NCO received a long-overdue Purple Heart Medal on May 27.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:Texarkana Police win big at Strike Out Child Abuse Bowl-A-Thon;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktalnews.com\/news\/local-news\/texarkana-tapd-community-support\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Texarkana Police win big at Strike Out Child Abuse Bowl-A-Thon\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Retired Sergeant 1st Class Joe J. Shelby was deployed to Iraq from July 19, 2006, to October 12, 2007. While there, he served as a platoon sergeant with Alpha Co., 875th Engineer Battalion, in Balad, conducting route clearance mission.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_ktal_shreveport_articles_242\/333151605c9bbb318c72fbba460e63c3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Retired Sgt. 1st Class Joe Shelby presented with Purple Heart Medal (Courtesy: Arkansas National Guard)<\/p>\n<p>Shelby sustained seven separate improvised explosive device blasts over the course of his tour, which resulted in traumatic brain injuries and concussions.<\/p>\n<p>On January 9, 2007, Shelby\u2019s vehicle sustained a direct improvised explosive device (IED) strike while leading his platoon. The vehicle was rendered fully inoperable and caused significant injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Retired Sgt. 1st Class Shelby was awarded the Purple Heart, the nation\u2019s oldest medal, during an intimate ceremony in front of family, friends, and military members.<\/p>\n<p>You can now stream KTAL 6 and KMSS 33 News live 24\/7 on your smart TV\u00a0with\u00a0<a data-ylk=\"slk:KTAL Now;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktalnews.com\/ktal-news-live-stream\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KTAL Now<\/a>,\u00a0our brand-new app!No antenna, cable, or satellite needed\u2014watch for free, anytime.\u00a0Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.<\/p>\n<p>More Local News<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktalnews.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLAND, Ark. (KTAL\/KMSS) \u2014 A retired Arkansas National Guard NCO received a long-overdue Purple Heart Medal on May&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[44910,44998,44997,94,44994,44993,44995,44996],"class_list":["post-135572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-arkansas-national-guard","tag-engineer-battalion","tag-improvised-explosive-device","tag-iraq","tag-joe-j-shelby","tag-platoon-sergeant","tag-purple-heart-medal","tag-traumatic-brain-injuries"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116654643925227196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}