Vet Who Lost Legs Delivers Purple Heart To MN Soldier

SOURCE: WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Jack Zimmerman, a 21-year-old soldier from Cleveland, Minn., received the Purple Heart from someone who is familiar with his experience.

Zimmerman lost both his legs last February when he walked over a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

The Purple Heart is awarded to those who are wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States.

State Rep. John Kriesel pinned the award on Zimmerman. Kriesel was awarded the Purple Heart after he lost his legs in an IED attack that claimed the lives of two men in his unit.

Kriesel said he already knows what he’ll tell Zimmerman.

“Every minute down there is worth it, every time you’re struggling in physical therapy, you know, fight harder, because it’s going to make your life back here much easier,” said Kriesel. “And I’m gonna let him know that I’m here for him, any questions he has, anything I can do for him.”

Kriesel went to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas on Thursday, where Zimmerman is going through rehab. Kriesel received his Purple Heart from President George W. Bush in 2006.

Proposed bill would make voting easier for overseas military

by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
May 25, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota Congressman Erik Paulsen said he's marking the Memorial Day holiday by sponsoring a new measure to make it easier for military members serving overseas to vote.

Paulsen said the so-called "Military Voter Protection Act" would use the U.S. Postal Service's express mail service to cut the mailing time for overseas military voters to as little as four days.

"One of the provisions of the bill will require that ballot shipments will be trackable so that a service member can monitor his or her ballot as it makes its way to the local board of elections," Paulsen said. "So again, we're just essentially using current technology to assure that our veterans are having their votes delivered on time."

The third district Republican said as many as 23 percent of rejected absentee ballots are from military voters, whose ballots arrived too late to be counted.

Rejected absentee ballots played a key role in Minnesota's still-unresolved U.S. Senate race.