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2 Utah veterans presented with medals years after they earned them

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SALT LAKE CITY – Two Utah veterans who earned medals while serving their country finally received them Wednesday.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, presented medals to Bruce Hall of Salt Lake City and Philip Geary of Coalville.

Hall earned a Bronze Star for his heroic actions in ground combat in the Philippines during World War II. Hall served in the Army.

Geary was wounded in the Vietnam War, but he didn’t receive his Purple Heart until this week.

Hatch said long delays like this are usually caused by problems with military records.

“Usually the problems involve lack of record keeping,” he said. “Some of the records were destroyed at one time, they had a fire in one of the depositories, and they were destroyed, so it takes a lot of effort to get back and talk to the people who knew of the situation back then.”