47 Years After Battle, Unarmed Army Medic Receives Silver Star
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Forty-seven years cannot heal the scars of a bloody battle.
So on a beautiful fall day, Ken Hughes would face a rush of emotion as those wartime memories flooded back.
Hughes was made an Army medic when the drafted soldier refused weapons training. He was eventually sent to Vietnam, where the simple fact of being unarmed made his bravery in battle all the more heroic.
The A Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry Units came under intense fire on March 3, 1969.
"It was in the Plie Trap Valley, in Vietnam, near the Cambodian border," said 1st Lt. Buddy Williams, leader of the 3rd Platoon.
They were about to be ambushed by a large force of the 66th North Vietnamese Army regiment.
Suddenly, the injured American soldiers were yelling for medics. Two of the medics would be killed in the fight, and medic "Doc" Hughes would also brave the flying bullets and mortars to give the wounded medical aid.
"It's only called when there already has been injury, and the only worry is what kind of injury are you going to meet up with," Hughes said.
Twenty-seven American soldiers were killed in the two-day battle, and many more were injured. Hughes continued giving aid despite being shot twice, in the left arm and right lung.
When he was finally dragged to safety, he refused morphine to ease his pain in order to remain clear-headed so that he could help untrained soldiers render first aid to the rest of the wounded.
He would receive the Army's Silver Star for that gallantry, which he accepted Thursday from Sen. Klobuchar at Minnesota's Vietnam War Memorial in St. Paul.
"Without orders to do so, he moved right into the firefight," Sen. Klobuchar said.
Platoon leader Buddy Williams served alongside Hughes.
"When you consider that's the nation's third-highest award for valor, it says a lot for the man," Williams said. "You don't see a Silver Star given out all the time."
Forty-seven years after the battle, visions of that day rush back. But Thursday, they are memories that are a little bit sweeter, knowing he did his job the best he could and saved lives in the face of enemy fire.
"No one in the company that I still know thought it bad of me not to have a weapon. They were just glad I was there to put bandages on them," Hughes said.