Wounded in action
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
Wounded in Action, better known as "WIA", is a classification used by the United Nations Space Command to denote service members that have been wounded during a battle situation. Being Wounded in Action will result in being rewarded with a Purple Heart.
When Spartans became missing or were killed they were classified as Missing In Action (MIA) or Wounded in Action (WIA) but never Killed in Action (KIA); to give the illusion that Spartans never die[1]. It also gave the troops of the UNSC more morale.
It is extremely likely that all Spartans have been wounded in action at some point. [2] One SPARTAN, Cassandra (tag unknown) , is considered one of the WIA.
A second SPARTAN to be WIA was James (Tag Unknown). He lost the lower part of his left arm when attacking a pair of Hunters on Sigma Octanus IV. However, he continued to fight and remained an active member of the SPARTAN-II program until his death during the fall of Reach.
References
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, Kurt kept the tradition....recording himself, as well as..., as MIA
- ^ Halo: First Strike.