Sgt. Frank Spink Page 3

1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

Sgt. Frank Spink is applauded by the crowd before receiving a Silver Star for his tour in the Vietnam war
in Ahner Auditorium, National Guard Armory, on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.

(Kenneth L. Hawkins Jr./ The Star)

Sgt. Frank Spink stands with Major General R. Martin Umbarger before receiving a Silver Star for his tour
in the Vietnam war in Ahner Auditorium at the Indiana National Guard Armory, on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.

(Kenneth L. Hawkins Jr./ The Star)

Sgt. Frank Spink shakes Major General R. Martin Umbarger's hand before receiving a Silver Star for his tour
in the Vietnam war in Ahner Auditorium at the Indiana National Guard Armory, on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.

(Kenneth L. Hawkins Jr./ The Star)

A Vietnam War veteran from Plainfield on Wednesday received a Silver Star — 44 years overdue.

written by Betsy Reason

U.S. Army Sgt. Frank Spink, 66, wore an American flag shirt with the right sleeve hanging loosely over the spot where his arm,
which was shredded when a rocket hit his bunker, was amputated.

Spink was the center of attention at a ceremony at Stout Field on Indianapolis’ Southside, where he accepted the Army’s
third-highest award for heroism for his gallantry during a North Vietnamese attack on his base.

It was a medal presentation that almost never happened.

It’s unclear why Spink had not received the honor — or hadn’t even been informed of it until earlier this year.
Somewhere along the way, there was a bureaucratic mix-up. A serial number was copied incorrectly. Paperwork was lost or misplaced.

“This is a great day, but it’s a shame that it took 44 years for it to happen,” said U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind.,
who helped the veteran receive his medal.

“Sergeant Spink, all of us here today salute you for your service. And as Americans, we all express our sadness
that you haven’t received this honor until now,” Rokita said during the ceremony.

Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, who formally awarded Spink his medal,
alluded to mixed feelings many Vietnam veterans had about the negative reception they received when they came home from the war.

“Our nation did you and all our fellow Vietnam vets wrong, but thank God we learned from it,” Umbarger said.
“A lot of what we have today, of what we do for these brave men and women who are serving our country,
is because of what we did not do for you. Welcome home. Your nation thanks you for your service.”

Rather than draw attention to himself, Spink preferred to give credit to the man who uncovered the missing orders.
His platoon leader, Lt. John McHenry, discovered the four-decade-old mistake in February while researching his former Army unit
at the National Archives in College Park, Md.

“This guy right here made this day possible. He’s sure been a friend for 44 years,” Spink said, pointing to McHenry in the audience.

Spink recalled the story of that harrowing day vividly: It was about 3 a.m. June 13, 1968, about half an hour after he went on
overnight guard duty. He soon realized that enemy soldiers were approaching the U.S. Special Forces camp in Dak Pek, a village
in Kontum province. Spink notified his platoon leader, alerted fellow soldiers and, in the darkness,
opened fire on the North Vietnamese troops.

“I saw the enemy crawling up the hill. That’s when I started shooting,” Spink recalled.

“I reached up to get another magazine to put in my rifle, then a rocket took my bunker, and my bunker blew up.
John (McHenry) came over and grabbed my arm to keep me from bleeding to death.”

Spink lost consciousness, then woke up as he was being airlifted to a military hospital in Pleiku. He eventually wound up
at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His final stop was the Veterans Administration Hospital in Indianapolis,
where he stayed until he was discharged, receiving a Purple Heart for his wounds.

“He was the guy who gave us those few seconds that we needed,” said McHenry, 66. He wrote the orders to recognize
Spink’s valor on a small piece of paper in 1968, but it wasn’t until he started mulling over memories of the Vietnam War
about five years ago that he wondered whether Spink had ever received the medal.

He sent Spink a Christmas card with the words, “Thanks Frank for saving lives.” Spink’s son found McHenry’s phone number
so the two vets could reconnect. During a 2007 reunion of men in Company B, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 4th Infantry Division,
McHenry, who lives in Annandale, Va., learned that Spink had never received his medal for saving the camp.

Spink attended Washington High School before marrying in 1965. He served in the military from February 1967 to October 1968.

After returning from the service, he stayed at home with their two kids while his wife, Judy, worked at Duke Energy. She died five years ago.

“She (Mom) would have been over the moon,” said daughter Deana Bryant, 42, who now lives in Ohio, speaking with
tears in her eyes as she attended the medal ceremony beside her brother, Brian Spink, 40, Brownsburg.

None of that would have happened, however, if McHenry and fellow Vietnam War veteran Fred Golladay, Herford, Ariz.,
hadn’t taken on the mission to correct the paperwork oversight.

Spink said of McHenry: “He’s family. He’s a brother. Good thing he went to the archives that day, or this day wouldn’t be happening.”

Sgt. Frank Spink is presented and pinned with a Silver Star by Major General R. Martin Umbarger for his tour in the Vietnam war
in Ahner Auditorium at the Indiana National Guard Armory, on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.

(Kenneth L. Hawkins Jr./ The Star)

Hoosier Vietnam veteran Frank Spink, 66, Plainfield, Ind., receives the nation’s third-highest award for valor, the Silver Star Medal
from Indiana National Guard Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, and Indiana Congressman Todd Rokita,
at Indiana Joint Force Headquarters, Indianapolis, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012. Spink received the award 44 years after losing his right arm
fighting the North Vietnamese in Dak Pek, South Vietnam in 1968.

U.S. Army photo by Sgt. John Crosby

Hoosier Vietnam Vet Awarded Silver Star After 44 years

INDIANAPOLIS – Gray, balding, proudly wearing his American Flag polo shirt, the right sleeve dangling loosely off
his right shoulder, Frank Spink, 66, Plainfield, Ind., sat modestly with his family awaiting his presentation of the
Department of Defense’s third-highest award for gallantry, the Silver Star Medal.

More than four decades earlier, at roughly 3 a.m., June 13, 1968, Sgt. Spink scanning his sector for Viet Cong,
pulling guard duty at an under-strength Special Forces camp in Dak Pek, South Vietnam.

His fellow Soldiers knew him for his coolness under fire. He adapted quick as a combat infantryman. As a draftee
with less than 11 months of service he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and was a well respected squad leader
in Company B, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.

Vigilantly watching the perimeters of his post, Spink realized the enemy was silently moving in around him. Spink immediately
alerted his comrades of the imminent attack waking many Soldiers from their bunks, scrambling to fighting positions.

In less than a minute, the enemy engaged the perimeter and fired flares over the U.S. command post, it was obvious
the attack was well planned and coordinated.

Spink engaged the enemy. Men fell around him. He emptied his magazine at the approaching enemy and went to load another.

“I reached up to grab another magazine, and that’s when a rocket hit my bunker. My bunker blew up,” said Spink. His right arm
was shredded in the blast. Despite this devastating blow, he again engaged the enemy and rallied his troops until losing consciousness.

The fight intensified. Spink’s company was assaulted by two, heavily-armed companies of Viet Cong. Much of the fighting
was hand-to-hand, said Spink’s platoon leader, 1st Lt. John McHenry who applied pressure to his wounds.

“I call him lieutenant Dan,” Spink said chuckling, using his best Forest Gump accent. His face grew more serious.
“He saved me from bleeding to death. He helped saved my life that night.”

McHenry put Spink in for the Silver Star, scrawling what he witnessed that night onto plain notebook paper
and gathering accounts of those present.

“He saved a lot of lives that night,” McHenry said of Spink. “If he hadn’t woke us up, if we didn’t have those extra few seconds
to prepare, who knows where we’d be today.”

The Silver Star was approved. However, due to an incorrect serial number, Spink was never awarded the medal.

Forty years later, as combat veterans often do, McHenry began reconnecting with the comrades he served with so long ago.
He researched his unit at the National Archives in College Park, Md., and learned that Spink had never received the medal
he’d put him in for. McHenry made it his personal mission to see Spink receive this long-overdue honor.

Finally, after working with Indiana Congressman Todd Rokita, the award was ready to be pinned.
Spink would finally see the honor he deserved.

“All of us here today salute you for your service,” said Rokita. “As Americans, we all express our sadness
that you haven't received this honor until now.

Indiana Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, officially pinned the award to Spink.

“Our nation did you and all of our Vietnam vets wrong,” said Umbarger. “But, thank God we learned from it.
A lot of what we have today, of what we do for these brave men and women who are serving our country,
is because of what we did not do for you. Welcome home. Your nation thanks you for your service.”

A humble Spink returned the thank you.

“I truly appreciate this day. If somebody told me a year ago this day was gonna happen, I wouldn’t believe ‘em.
But it’s here and I’m kinda glad it’s over with now,” Spink said smiling to a laughing audience,
Silver Star pinned to his star-spangled shirt.

Spink also thanked his old platoon leader who saved his life so many years earlier. “This guy right here made this day possible.
He’s sure been a friend for 44 years.”

“I think I can settle down now. Maybe go home and have a glass of wine.”

Sgt. Frank Spink receives a Silver Star for his tour in the Vietnam war in Ahner Auditorium
at the Indiana National Guard Armory, on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.

(Kenneth L. Hawkins Jr./ The Star)

Vietnam veteran receives Silver Star 44 years after service

By Rebecca Ruiz, NBC News

Forty-four years ago, Frank Spink, a 22-year-old Army sergeant who had been drafted into the Vietnam War,
spotted enemy forces approaching in the middle of the night and warned his sleeping platoon leader. Their company was quickly
receiving rocket and grenade fire; Spink lost his right arm in the attack and attempted to shoot with his left hand until he passed out.

That was in June 1968, and Spink eventually returned home to Indiana following a stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
where he received a Purple Heart.

"It was a mission," Spink, 66, told NBC News. "I never thought a whole lot more about it."

But that night stayed with his platoon leader and second lieutenant John McHenry, who said Spink saved soldiers' lives with his warning.

"Those few seconds that we had made all the difference," he said. "If they had gotten much closer with their firepower,
we would have been toast."

McHenry hadn't really spoken about the attack that night, during which he sustained a concussion, until a few years ago.
Then he began wondering if his soldiers had ever received recognition for their heroic acts.

"That’s one of the things that haunted me over the years, that the guys didn’t get recognition," McHenry said.

He decided to investigate the records at the National Archives in College Park, Md., four years ago and found an order
to award Spink a Silver Star that had nearly been lost to history. McHenry believes the mistake may have been the result
of an error in the number that identified Spink.

McHenry called Spink with the good news. "I couldn’t believe it," said Spink, who didn't realize his actions were worthy
of the military's third highest honor. "I thought I was supposed to do that."

Earlier this year, Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., who counts Spink as a constituent, lobbied military officials to award the medal quickly.

"Sgt. Spink did his duty bravely and heroically, and to our shame as a country, we never gave him the honor he deserved.
I'm glad we were able to right this wrong and show our appreciation to him and to all of his fellow veterans," said Rokita.

Spink received the medal on Wednesday in Indianapolis at the Indiana National Guard headquarters. In a ceremony
attended by many local veterans, Spink asked those who served in Vietnam to stand up and be applauded.

"This is their day also," he said. "We were there to watch out for each other."

Frank's Silver Star Medal pinned on his shirt

(Kenneth L. Hawkins Jr./ The Star)

Frank Spink was honored by the city of Plainfield, while the Indiana National Guard provided an escort for him
in the annual QUAKER DAY parade held in Plainfield, Indiana, 2012. Frank is seen here riding in the parade vehicle.

Photo courtesy of Fred Childs

For a video of the medal presentation to SGT Frank Spink click on the following link:

YouTube

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