Soldier's Purple Heart arriving 42 years late

Until recently, Marshall Tripp never talked much.

He's a matter-of-fact 63-year-old man from Pisgah, Ala., who wouldn't tell you he served in Vietnam unless asked. In fact, he didn't even talk about the war with family or friends after he got back in 1968 or for the next four decades.

His son, Sgt. 1st Class Marcus Tripp, has served 18 years in the Army, something his dad's proud of, but even that didn't really get him talking about his service.

"Every now and then I would ask him about what he did over there," Sgt. 1st Class Tripp recalls. But his Dad's answers were short, one or two sentences.

"He didn't care for it at all, to tell the truth," Sgt. 1st Class Tripp said.

But that didn't matter. The sergeant was proud of his father's service. And he knew he'd been wounded in Vietnam but never received a Purple Heart.

On Monday, Sgt. 1st Class Tripp and his commanding officer will travel from Fort Gillem, Ga., to the Alabama home of his father to pin that Purple Heart on his chest.

It all started when Mr. Tripp retired from the Tennessee Valley Authority earlier this year and headed to the Veterans Affairs office in Chattanooga to check on his health. Sgt. 1st Class Tripp saw a chance to make up for lost time.

He knew his dad had been injured in the jungles of Vietnam. While walking point on a patrol, a sharpened punji stick in a booby-trap set by the Viet Cong ran through his leg.

The jungles were so deep, the young soldier had to walk for hours before he could be airlifted to a hospital. He was patched up, recovered and sent back out into those jungles to finish his yearlong tour.

"No, you didn't go home for something like that," Mr. Tripp said.

The combat wound qualified him for a Purple Heart, but no one took the time to write the citation or file the necessary documents. Awards were the last thing on Mr. Tripp's mind at the time.

"All I wanted out of the Army was out," he said.

Forty-two years after his injury, his son wanted more for his father than a discharge. He gathered up the documents and, with the help of Phillip Elliott, Mr. Tripp's counselor at the Chattanooga Vet Center, filed the paperwork for a long overdue recognition.

The award came in the mail along with other unit awards Mr. Tripp never had received. Those medals are in their packaging in Mr. Tripp's green shoebox.

And along with the Purple Heart, Mr. Tripp has opened up his own heart a bit.

After his recent retirement, he's had more time on his hands, more time to think and, like many combat veterans, to remember. He started talking with his friends, his family and especially Mr. Elliott. That talking, Mr. Tripp said, has helped him work through those long-ago memories.

"This has brought back a lot of stuff I felt when I first come back," he said.