Does Donald Trump realize that soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen must be wounded in combat to earn a Purple Heart medal? Apparently not, considering the GOP presidential nominee claimed Tuesday that he "always wanted" one, yet he missed his chance to get one with five draft deferments during the Vietnam War.

A Vietnam veteran gifted his purple heart to Trump during a campaign rally in Ashburn, Virginia, Tuesday amid the controversy over Trump's attacks on a "Gold Star" mother, a distinction she got by losing her son in war.

"He said, 'That's my real Purple Heart. I have such confidence in you.' And I said, 'Man, that's, like, that's, like, big stuff.' I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier," Trump said during his rally speech.

Trump has said he "always felt that I was in the military" because he went to a military school as a child, but a doctor's diagnosis that he suffered from a bone spur in one heel kept Trump from being drafted during the Vietnam War.