---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 1131"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "1131"
heading: "Purple Heart: limitation to members of the armed forces"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/1131"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 57 — Decorations and Awards"
---

# §1131. Purple Heart: limitation to members of the armed forces


The decoration known as the Purple Heart (authorized to be awarded pursuant to Executive Order 11016) may only be awarded to a [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) who is a member of the [armed forces](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-4) at the time the [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) is killed or wounded under circumstances otherwise qualifying that [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) for award of the Purple Heart.


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 105–85, div. A, title V, § 571(a)(1), Nov. 18, 1997, 111 Stat. 1756.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### References in Text

Executive Order 11016, referred to in text, is Ex. Ord. No. 11016, Apr. 25, 1962, 27 F.R. 4139, which is set out as a note under section 1129 of this title.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Pub. L. 105–85, div. A, title V, § 571(b), Nov. 18, 1997, 111 Stat. 1756, provided that: “Section 1131 of title 10, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), shall apply with respect to persons who are killed or wounded after the end of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act [Nov. 18, 1997].”