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Vietnam veteran receives belated Purple Heart in Woodville
Beaumont Enterprise
By Manuella Libardi | Nov. 12, 2015
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On May 13, 1969, Craig Metcalf crouched down on the ridges of Hill 937 in South Vietnam, putting pressure with his hand on a wound he had sustained to his upper-right thigh.

The 21-year-old radio and telephone operator from Woodville had been moving up the steep and heavily fortified Ap Bia Mountain when North Vietnamese forces attacked.
Metcalf was hit by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade.

He kept fighting until the North Vietnamese troops retreated.

"You don't really think," he said of combat, "You just do and hope you're doing the right thing."

Metcalf received a Bronze Star for valor in the 1970s for the role he played in the Battle of Hamburger Hill, but never received the Purple Heart he was promised.

Records are hard to keep track of during times of war and veterans sometimes receive their medals years after their service, said U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, who pinned the Purple Heart on Metcalf Wednesday during a Veterans Day ceremony at Woodville's Heritage Village.

Metcalf, now 67, humbly thanked the crowd after, saying he felt undeserving of the medal.

"I stood there looking around at all the people that were killed and that were injured," Metcalf said, adding that he thought his wounds were far less severe.

Exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War caused Metcalf's health to start deteriorating shortly after he returned to the U.S., he said.

Metcalf, who has been on disability for several years, said he has trouble with his kidneys, lungs and digestive system.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something he was never able to overcome, accounts for about 50 percent of his ailments, he said.

"The leg injury really was the least of it," Metcalf said.