Navy vet receives his medals after 50 years

“He gave it to me to take home,” Wickwire said, adding he’d only recently learned Pringle had the flag. “When we unrolled it, you could see the tattered ends.”

Wickwire has known for years that he’d earned medals for his service. But receiving them proved difficult.

“It seems like nobody could find a record of [my service],” Wickwire said. “I’ve approached other people in the past, even politicians or people in the political world for help. I’ve never really ever had any response, even with VSOs [veterans service officers] in the past.”

He felt forgotten.

Then Wickwire reached out to Merkley. “I knew that Jeff Merkley cared about veterans; I’ve watched him over the years, he’s been in there a long time.”

Merkley’s Veterans and Military Constituent Service representative promptly responded. “She contacted me within a couple of days, and she said, ‘Sen. Merkley wants me to look into that,’” Wickwire said.

And she did. Wickwire ended up with seven medals in total, two of which were sent to his home prior to the Nov. 10 presentation.

Merkley has always had someone who works specifically with veterans on staff to address issues they face. It can be a tedious process for veterans to attempt alone because of the documentation required, which can be hard to find.

“The challenge is finding out the veteran’s unique needs and service story, and what paths to take that best fits their service,” said Oregon Press Secretary Molly Prescott, Office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley. “It boils down to finding the right records and connect to the medals department of the correct branch of the military.”

“I want to encourage any veterans who have issues with benefits, who have issues related to healthcare, who have lost their medals or never received them, to contact my team,” Merkley said. Veterans can reach out on Merkley’s website, merkley.senate.gov/connect/contact, or call the Portland office at 503-326-3386.

It’s a service any Oregon veteran can request, and one Merkley wants people to utilize.

“Each individual case is different, and there are always unique challenges,” said Prescott. “Sometimes the veteran has lost their medals, or they never received them in the first place following their service. Others have trouble navigating the online systems to find the necessary paperwork.

“Another big challenge is for a veteran to get their full military record needed to pursue the medals,” she said. “The senator’s Constituent Services representative can often access these files much more quickly and knows what to look for as she combs through extensive records. With her help, veterans sometimes receive more medals than they previously knew they qualified for because she knows what to look for in the records.”

Merkley served in the Pentagon for two years with Vietnam veterans like Wickwire, he said. “His Navy service was a very significant part of his life,” Merkley said. “It included missions to help people escape Saigon and also out of Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. It involves serving aboard a ship during a typhoon, where he was responsible for saving the cargo that was coming loose. And yet, he’s never been recognized in a way that he should have been recognized. So it’s very emotional to me, it’s very powerful to me to be able to say, ‘You earned these five ribbons … Your country really appreciates your service,’” he said.

Wickwire said many people have asked him why it took 50 years to get his medals. “I can only say it’s just part of our governmental system, but that’s not an answer — it’s just an excuse,” he said. “And you just got to keep fighting for it and never give up … At least reach out to your local senators because they have a little more access than some of the others.”

Now, Wickwire no longer feels forgotten. “I was just chatting [with someone] and I said, ‘You know, after all this, I feel like, for 50 years the ship was lost at sea, and has found its home port finally,’” he said. “My tour of duty is finally over. That’s what I felt like.”

Veterans History Project

Besides reaching out to his office for help, Merkley is encouraging veterans to consider participating in the Veterans History Project, a partnership with the Library of Congress.

The project has been set up “so that veterans have an opportunity to share their stories in a permanent archive, to share their photos or other things that they brought back — their journals and so forth — which may be very significant to their children and grandchildren but will also help historians piece together pieces of the puzzle generations from now.”

For information on the Veterans History Project, visit the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov/programs/veterans-history-project/explore-the-collections. There, you can learn how to participate or explore the collections.

Oregon veterans with questions about the project or who wish to participate may also reach out to Merkley's office at www.merkley.senate.gov/veterans-history-project/.  

"As a partner of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center’s Veterans History Project, the office is here to help Oregon’s veterans participate in-state, and we always welcome volunteers who are eager to interview veterans or collect their original materials for preservation should they need assistance," said Prescott.