Continuity mistake: In the scene where Dorie Miller almost knocked out the other man, the "referee" is first on the left, but as soon as the camera changes angles, he is suddenly on the right (or maybe it's vice-versa).
Continuity mistake: When Rafe's plane takes off from the carrier (as the second), you see the totally empty deck of the ship, even though there ought to be 14 planes left.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Roosevelt is delivering the "Day of Infamy" speech to Congress watch the microphone placement. The MBC microphone likes to move around from left to right.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Goose is in the bunker with everyone else, he says "Planes. Should we fire?" When he says this, we see him staring down the site of a 50 cal. In the next shot, we see the gun, but no Goose. And we know it's the same gun, because Red was by it both shots. Yet when we see the gun in the very next shot he is holding it again. He had no time to move away and back to the weapon again.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Red head boy is proposing to the nurse, 2 men walk by together, one wearing a light coloured shirt with some scattered pattern on it, and the other wearing a plain white shirt. Then they walk by again a few seconds later.
Continuity mistake: During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Rafe, along with a couple of other pilots jump into a convertible car to drive to another airfield. The actual set they depart from (which is exploding all around them) is the same one they "arrive" at minutes later, but the whole set is intact, instead of an actual different set/location.
Continuity mistake: When Rafe is just about to burn Evelyn's letters, he folds them. In the first shot, he folds them with the writing on the inside, but in the next shot and the shot when the letters burn, the writing is on the outside.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Danny, Rafe and Jimmy Doolittle are on the deck of the Hornet talking about "returning" the friendship medals before the attack on Tokyo, you can see what appears to be a radar dish covered with a grey tarpaulin. The scene cuts back to Doolittle, Danny and Rafe talking some more, and then back to a wide shot of Doolittle walking away. The mysterious tarped object is completely gone now.
Continuity mistake: When Rafe and Evelyn go to the Queen Mary ship and they are rising on the platform, and kissing, one sweeping camera shot shows the handle of the elevator controls going straight up. This would mean that they had stopped, yet they are still moving up. A couple of seconds later, a close up of the handle shows that it is now in the position to move the elevator up.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Rafe is burning his love letters on the beach after learning Evelyn is pregnant with Danny's child, when Danny and Rafe are talking there is a modern "dune fence" meant to keep people from walking on sensitive dune plants clearly visible in the background.
Continuity mistake: When Evelyn says goodbye to Rafe before the last raid, the angle in which Rafe is holding his head head changes between back and forth twice between clips.
Continuity mistake: When Rafe is taking Evelyn to the boat in the beginning of the movie to sit on the lighted platform, they clearly pass the same platform about 2 or 3 times before they get onto it.
Continuity mistake: On the island with Pearl Harbor when the girl and Ralf is sitting in the old car on the beach you can see the camera wagon in the bumper on the car.
Continuity mistake: When one of the Men are speaking to the President about the boys having to take the airplanes off the carrier too soon, you can see there's a ring on his left pinky finger, but no wedding ring.
Continuity mistake: When Rafe and Evelyn go to the Queen Mary and are rising on the boat is one sweeping camera shot. Look to the right as their boat goes up and you can see the film crew going up on a platform. Note that the next shot of them on the boat is filmed from that platform.
Continuity mistake: When Rafe comes back for the first time after supposedly being dead and you see his reflection in the glass before meeting his lover, as the camera pans across the room you can see a green light moving on the wall as the camera moves. I'm not sure what it is but it could be the light to indicate the camera is on.
Continuity mistake: When Danny & Rafe take off from the sattellite airfield their landing gear is (obviously) down. You see a shot of them from behind like this. Two seconds later they just clear a building, in the heat of a combat takeoff,and both sets of landing gear are fully retracted.
Continuity mistake: When Rafe's Spitfire crashes into the water, the preceding shot shows it to be diving nose first, In the next shot however, it lands virtually flat.
Continuity mistake: After Rafe hits himself with the cork, Evelyn puts snow on it. She then is seen removing it, but when the camera angle changes, the snow is back on his nose.
Continuity mistake: As the bombs land and chaos ensues in Pearl Harbor, in a scene where some classic cars are parked on the beach, you can clearly see the card-board squares that the cars' wheels are parked on (presumably to keep them from digging in to the sand.)
Answer: From Dec 7, 1941 to Sept 22, 1943, the Purple Heart was also awarded for meritorious performance of duty. For wounds, "in combat" is much more restrictive than the actual requirements. Any injury caused directly or indirectly by a hostile foreign agency counts, including friendly fire if it was intended to hit an enemy.
Myridon