Purple Heart recipients honored

Purple Heart recipients and family members pose next to a parking spot adjacent to the Marion County Board of County Commissioners offices that is reserved for Combat Wounded recipients of the medal. Left to right: Jeffrey Askew, director of Marion County Veterans Services; Patricia Bolding, wife of recipient Henry Bolding; Yabuku Johnson, son of Brown; Angela Brown, wife of Brown; recipient Henry Bolding (rear); recipient F.L. Brown, recipient Jerry Anderson and his wife, Barbara. [Photo by Andy Fillmore]

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Posted August 9, 2024 | By Andy Fillmore, [email protected]

Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart Award recipient F.L. Brown called Tuesday, Aug. 6, an amazing day. He was one of the recipients who were honored for their military service during the Marion County Commission meeting, one day before National Purple Heart Day.

“It feels good to be recognized,” said Brown, 72, of Ocala, who was wounded while serving in the U.S. Army in 1972. Brown said he was the point man when his unit was ambushed and he was shot in the arm.

Dorothy Antonelli stood with the group representing her uncle, Peter Patete, a Purple Heart recipient who died in the Korean War in 1950 and whose remains have never been found. Antonelli has steadfastly honored her family member’s loss and sought his remains.

The Purple Heart, America’s oldest military award, was established by Gen. George Washington in 1782 during the Revolutionary War to “recognize heroic acts by his troops,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The decoration was renewed in 1932 and “awarded for meritorious service, but now soldiers could also receive it if they’d been wounded by the enemy,” the website states.

During the meeting, the commissioners proclaimed Aug. 7, 2024, as “Purple Heart Day in Marion County,” recognizing 2 million American service members who have been awarded the Purple Heart, a number of whom are living in Marion County.

Commissioner Craig Curry spoke about the award recipients. “(These recipients) took a bullet for the country,” he said.

Curry said he was a classmate of Hammett Lee Bowen Jr., a “normal guy” who did an “extraordinary” act in the Vietnam War and saved the lives of three of his comrades in his squad by throwing himself on a hand grenade.

Bowen is Marion County’s only Medal of Honor recipient. According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website, Bowen, 21, an Army staff sergeant, died on June 27, 1969, after he “hurled himself on the grenade, absorbing the explosion with his body while saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.”

The Purple Heart recipients and family members at the meeting were brought forward and each was presented a framed copy of the commissions’ proclamation and a challenge coin marked “Purple Heart/Combat Wounded.”

The proclamation read, in part, “Recognizing our Purple Heart recipients can help raise awareness about the impacts of wartime deployments and combat situations on veterans and their families” and put a focus on the need to provide support for veterans.

Matthew Cretel, the commission’s legislative manager, stated in an email that he coordinated with people including Curry, Assistant County Administrator Amanda Tart, Public Relations Director Bobbi Perez and Veterans Services Director Jeffrey Askew to arrange the Aug. 6 event.

“The purpose of the event was to make sure Marion County further recognized its veterans who were awarded one of the country’s most honored military awards, the Purple Heart,” he wrote.

“Those of us who served in Iraq or Afghanistan have found multiple bonds with those who served before us in Vietnam. One specific area where we connect is the similarities between their exposure to Agent Orange and ours to burn pits. Both groups were exposed to toxins, and the results of that exposure might not be visible for decades,” Cretel wrote.

“Seeing how they fought for the medical coverage they deserved gives us a roadmap of how to move forward. Seeing the barriers they faced gives us an idea of what we will face,” he stated.

The Purple Heart recipients who attended the meeting and were honored included:

Vietnam War:

* Odell Hamilton, 74.
* Jerome (Jerry) Anderson, 77, Army, wounded by a mortar round in the Vietnam War in 1966.
* Michael Jackson, 78, Army, wounded in ambush in 1967.
* F.L. “Frankie” Lee Brown, 72, Army, wounded in ambush in 1972.
* Steve Petty, Army, 80.
* Joseph Marquis, 82, Army, wounded three times in 1968.
* Henry Bolding, 75, Marine Corps, wounded in an ambush.
* Reginald Nealy, 75, Marine Corps, injured when his patrol was ambushed March 31, 1967, during a firefight and explosion where two soldiers South Vietnamese soldiers in his unit died. He was hospitalized for 30 days and was awarded his Purple Heart medal in the field.

Korean War

* Peter Patete, Army, (received by Dorothy Antonelli) killed in action, Korean War.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

* Vito Giammanco, Army, 45.

Family members of the veterans included Brown’s wife, Angela, and son, Yabuku Johnson,16, who said he is “happy we have people like (his father),” and several others. Anderson’s wife, Barbara, said the parking spaces reserved for Purple Heart recipients are a good type of recognition.

In a discussion after the proclamation ceremony, several veterans spoke of their experiences.

Marquis, 82, was wounded while serving as a tank commander in Vietnam.

“If you ask any veteran in the room, they will likely say, ‘We were just doing our job,’” Marquis said. “We (Purple Heart award recipients) shed our blood for this country, and people should stop and think about that.”

Marquis, who was “doused” with Agent Orange chemical defoliant during the war, had open-heart surgery due to an illness listed by the Veterans Administration as related to the chemical. He added his concern for how the chemical affected the people of Vietnam.

Marquis said there was a “30-year delay” in obtaining some VA benefits.

Nealy, 75, is active in the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 795 in The Villages. He said many Vietnam War veterans had a difficult homecoming and he and his comrades in the MOPH want to “make sure that never happens again.”

“We want to welcome home young veterans, especially the wounded ones. It’s very positive to help the families,” he said.

Bolding, 75, was also wounded in the Vietnam War. He was part of a team combined with South Vietnamese forces that performed a mission on the “worst night ever with a full moon” near a village where even water buffalo presented a danger because they could “smell Americans.”

Bolding’s unit came under attack after their location was revealed by an internal subversive. He was wounded by mortar fire and airlifted for treatment.

Bolding, who said it took over 40 years to secure 100% VA benefits, said his return home from Vietnam to Washington, D.C., was not positive.

“They spit on my shoes,” he said.