Lamar Veteran awarded Purple Heart after 40 years

submitted photo-- Maj. Gen. King E. Sidwell, adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard, awarded Jack Dimond with several medals, including the Army Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, the Purple Heart, the Vietnam Recognition Medal from the State of Missouri and the Gallantry Cross with Palm Device from the Republic of Vietnam.

LAMAR, Mo. -- The adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard awarded service medals to a Vietnam Veteran who had been overlooked for the honors for more than 40 years.

Jack Dimond of Lamar, was awarded the Army Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Purple Heart for injuries sustained during the war. He was also awarded the Vietnam Recognition Medal from the state of Missouri and the Gallantry Cross with Palm Device from the Republic of Vietnam.

"Recognition for Jack is long overdue, but recognition for Jack is recognition for all Veterans," said Maj. Gen. King Sidwell. " We have what the rest of the world wants, and it's because of the Veteran. As a citizen, as a father, a husband, I thank you for my freedom."

Dimond found that he had never received the citations while he was procuring his medical records from the Army.

"I got my DD-214 from the Army, and there was nothing on it about my service in Vietnam," Dimond said. "I never really thought about it before that. I tried not to."

The weight of guilt kept Dimond from pursuing the medals -- the guilt, he said, of being alive.

Dimond was drafted straight out of high school and was deployed to Vietnam in February 1969 with the U.S. Army infantry. During the fourth month of his tour, he was wounded.

"We had been without water for three or four hours, so when a helicopter dropped off supplies, we all stood up and rushed in," Dimond recalled. "There was a booby-trap planted under a bunch of metal inside a foxhole, and when it went off, metal flew everywhere."

The explosion killed 18 men. Dimond himself felt fortunate to have only lost a portion of his upper lip and two teeth.

"I've been blessed all my life with a wonderful Family and friends -- you name it -- but I've probably never been more blessed than I was on June 10, 1969, when that booby-trap went off and I survived," Dimond said. "The kid standing next to me was killed, and I'm still walking around."

Dimond credits his good friend, rifle-shooting partner and fellow Vietnam Veteran Harry Claflin, for helping him rise above the weight of survivor's guilt and accept the long overdue honors.

"Jack earned them," Claflin said. "They were his medals."

Dimond insists, however, that those who deserve to be honored are the 18 men who lost their lives in the explosion as well as several others in his company who died in a similar blast just two days before he was injured.

"I'm proud to have served my country, especially in Vietnam," Dimond said. "And I'm grateful to the Army. (Going to Vietnam) may not have been the best thing for an 18-year-old boy, but I can honestly say that serving in the Vietnam War was the most rewarding thing I've ever done."