Honoring our Veterans is perhaps the most important civic duty in recognizing our priorities, understanding our past, and strengthening the backbone of a nation for the future.
However, there are times when such recognition is overdue, and in this particular case, long overdue.
Robert Terrell, a Selden Veteran who served in the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1968, has finally been given the recognition he so unequivocally deserves.
Terrell served in the U.S. Army during Operation Pershing in 1967. He was preparing to move out after heavy fighting when he and seven soldiers were injured by an enemy grenade. He sustained shrapnel wounds to his left shoulder and jaw, injuries he still carries to this day. He was airlifted for medical attention and returned to the field later that day without recording any of his injuries.
In February 2023, Terrell consulted with Congressman Nick LaLota’s (R, NY-01) office to recover medals for his father’s service in World War II. As LaLota was successful in helping secure these posthumous awards, Terrell then sought assistance in receiving the Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam, an effort he had tried to make with several previous Congressmen, but to no avail.
A Purple Heart is one of the highest awards a servicemember can receive. Purple Hearts are issued for Armed Forces members who are wounded or killed while serving under competent authority.
A ceremony was held outside the First Congressional District office in Hauppauge on Monday afternoon, joined by members of several Veterans’ organizations.
“As a Navy veteran and a lifelong Long Islander, it gives me great pride to lead this ceremony here today to present an honor that’s fifty-seven years overdue,” said LaLota. “A true hero of the Vietnam war, a member of the AMVETS Post 18, the Rocky Point VFW Post 6249, and a retired thirty-year union electrician.”
“His story is one of courage, of valor, of perseverance, and his service to remind us all of the immense service and sacrifice that so many who have worn the uniform give to us,” said LaLota. “Your service does not go unnoticed, and while the nation got it wrong decades ago, we want to help to try to get it right.”
LaLota said that Terrell was not shown the respect and appreciation that other generations of Americans received when they returned home, mainly due to the corrosive political overtones that were carried by public perception of the Vietnam War.
“In the name of the President of the United States and by the direction of the Secretary of the Army, I, Nick LaLota, present the Purple Heart to Specialist Robert L. Terrell, recognizing his injuries received on May 31, 1967, in the Republic of Vietnam, signed by the Honorable Christine E. Wormuth, Secretary of the Army,” said LaLota as he and Terrell’s son, Daniel, pinned the medal to Terrel’s jacket.
On the front side of the Purple Heart, a bust of George Washington and his coat of arms are visible. On the reverse side, the words “For Military Merit” are inscribed in the brass.
Robert Terrell recounted the day he was injured in Vietnam in full detail, discussing how one of his men lost his legs in the grenade blast.
“I assumed he was dead, but I grabbed him by his hand and threw him with all the other gear when the choppers came in for the medevac,” said Terrell. “They had no beds for me, so I was treated outside the tents on sandbags, pulling shrapnel out of my shoulder.”
Terrell saved all his men in the blast, but the soldier who lost his legs eventually succumbed to his injuries.
“I was trained when I was going to go to Vietnam that the way reconnaissance worked is that you’re expendable. The mission comes first,” said Terrell. “When you’re on a four-man team and someone gets wounded and you call for a medevac to get the person out, whether he’s dead or alive, they know the medevac can’t come in because then the mission would be over. In 2002 I went to a retirement seminar and I came down with survivor’s syndrome and I had to go to a VA to get a psychiatrist to cope with the situation.”
Despite the physical and mental remnants of the war, Terrell has retained a positive attitude throughout his life and relayed that message to today’s youth.
“I’m still here today, I’m still kicking, and every day is a fight to get up and keep moving,” said Terrell. “And to all young guys, regardless of how bad it gets, you have to remember one thing: we have to keep going. The secret of the game is to keep going. Get up in the morning and thank God that you’re still alive and that you have another day.”
Terrell thanked and recognized all Vietnam Veterans, and lamented that proper services could not be held for them in the wake of the war due to the political toxicity of the issue. Terrell said that after the war, funeral services for Veterans drew protestors.
“We were the hidden army that never was,” said Terrell.
“We don’t want to hide this anymore,” said LaLota. “We want to honor the sacrifice and hope that you, like me, were inspired by Mr. Terrell’s not only actions today, but his actions before, but his words today. This is the part of the selfless sacrifice that so many of our men and women in uniform went through and continue to go through. They put the mission before themselves. He’s always putting the mission, the country before himself, and that is an inspiration to me, my team, and everybody in this community. It doesn’t go unnoticed. Your sacrifice should be honored.”
LaLota also presented Terrell with a folded flag that waved from the Capitol Building for two weeks in his honor ahead of the ceremony.
In attendance also were representatives from the VFW Post 6249 in Rocky Point, Vietnam Veterans of American Chapter 11, AMVETS Post 18, the American AirPower Museum, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).