Maggie's Farm

Almost four decades after being released in March 1973 from 5-years of captivity by the North Vietnamese, Lewis Meyer was finally honored yesterday with two Purple Hearts and the Prisoner of War medal.

I’ve been honored to become friends with several former Vietnam POWs, whose modesty, humility, resilience, and continuing contributions to the US defense and to human rights is an inspiration. A local to where I live, Lewis Meyer’s story is another inspiration.  It is also another reminder of why it is so important to preserve the honor of medals earned against their devaluation by phonies. (See my post about the Defense Department and Congresswoman Susan Davis’ resistance to compiling a comprehensive list to help enforce the Stolen Valor law.)

Lewis Meyer, captured during the Tet ’68 attacks, was a POW held at the Rockpile near Hanoi, separate from most of the other American POWs in Vietnam.  Our POWs in Vietnam are themselves vigilant against phonies.  Their POWNetwork website lists a brief bio of Lewis Meyer.

But, it has taken until yesterday for Meyer to be given his deserved medals.

Photo by K.C. Alfred - Union-Tribune. Meyer wearing his dress firefighters uniform, thanking the 150 people who attended his medal ceremony.

The San Diego Union-Tribune ran the story on its front page this morning.  An Army Korea War veteran, Meyer then served in the federal fire service at military installations in the US.  In early 1968, he was sent to the Danang area as Assistant Fire Chief for I Corps to help train aircrash-suppression crews.  Several weeks later, while in the Hue area, he was captured after 3 days of fighting.  He and two other POWs escaped from the Rockpile but were recaptured several days later.  During his captivity, Meyer was tortured dozens of times.

The news article says he returned to the US “different, scarred and edgy,” and was eventually divorced. “One of his supervisors [in 1973] put in paperwork for the medals later that year, Meyer said. It got lost, bounced from the Army to the Navy and then into a who-knows-where limbo”

For ongoing adjustment issues, about four years ago, Meyer sought counseling from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  A friend since junior high school, retired Air Force colonel Dean Erwine, compiled witness lists and statements, wrote letters and made phone calls to get Meyer the medals he deserved.  “We hit a bureaucratic cement wall…First they told us he needed to be attached to a particular military unit to get the medals.  Then they said he wasn’t eligible because he was a civilian.”

Meyer’s supporters then got help from Vietnam veteran, now retired Congressman Duncan Hunter, then chair of the House Armed Services Committee, and longtime leader of support efforts for Vietnam POWs Ross Perot.  The bureaucratic barriers dropped.

The news article ends on this note:

“This is a great moment of closure to see him finally rewarded for his heroism,” said Jeff Meyer, his youngest son, who was 12 when his dad was captured. “I always knew he was a hero. Now everybody knows.”

After he received the medals, Meyer told the crowd, “I’m speechless.” But he wasn’t. He talked about how honored he felt. He talked about supporting the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And he talked about opening old wounds, and how he was OK with that — at last.

“I finally came out of my cell,” Meyer said. “I’m home.”