CRESTVIEW — In October 1968 in Vietnam, then-1st Lt. Vernon JB Ward Jr.’s team was ambushed after completing a mission to gather intelligence and capture enemy troops.
Ward led his men away before he and another soldier were wounded. Ward carried his comrade to the pickup spot, only to learn that it had been overrun. He then coordinated with air support to cover his team before guiding them to a second location where a helicopter rescued them.
Ward carried the injured soldier 400 meters to the helicopter and lifted him into it. After he made sure his team and their three prisoners were aboard, Ward killed five North Vietnamese soldiers and saved the crew. As he lifted himself into the helicopter, he used his own injured body to block a prisoner from escaping.
Almost 45 years later, the retired chief warrant officer 4 accepted the Silver Star — the third-highest combat award in the military — from retired Lt. Gen. Donald C. Wurster in the Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) auditorium in front of about 100 visitors.
View photos from the ceremony »
Read the letter to Frank DeToma »
From January 1968 to July 1969, Ward was assigned to Forward Operating Base 1, Command and Control North, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). It was part of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam — Studies and Observations Group, or MACV-SOG.
The highly classified unit was not publicly recognized until 2000, which has delayed awards and recognition for its members.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s Constituent Services office has worked with MACV-SOG members and advocates to process 65 awards to Ward and 33 other MACV-SOG members over the last three years, according to a letter from Clyde J. Sincere Jr. and Roy W. Bahr, two former Special Ops commanders who commended the work of Frank J. DeToma, Nelson’s senior constituent advocate.
Ward, who now lives in Mary Esther, joked that he wished they would have sent the award in the mail. He said no one joins the Special Forces for recognition or rewards, but from a deep sense of duty to their country.
“Today there are exceptional soldiers from this very compound doing extraordinary things all over the world, and no one will ever know,” Ward said earlier during his acceptance speech. “That is why Special Forces always have and always will be the quiet professionals who answer our country’s call.”
Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Delgado can be reached at 850-315-4445 or ldelgado@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenDnwfdn.