Captain Dale Allen Walker, 3 tours in Vietnam, 2 Purple Hearts, VA makes him wait

Like thousands of veterans, local has trouble with VA
Bullard News - USA

Jim Epperson editor@bullardnews.com

While Riverboat Captain Dale Allen Walker patrolled a river in Vietnam, a mine blew up at a nearby boat. He flew 30 feet in the air, landed on the boat, then rolled into the water.

He was trapped under the vessel, and it was bouncing on top of him. The boat pounded his feet into the thick river mud. Walker was stuck and about to drowned. Then someone in his boat came to his rescue. A helicopter hovered just low enough to board the wounded, and flew Walker to an Army hospital in Vietnam.

"I was in the Navy, and I had to go to an Army hospital," he said, remembering the battle from his home outside of Jacksonville. "I think that is how my records were lost."

This was how he received his second Purple Heart, and how the rest of his life changed. The first time he received a Purple Heart his Assault Support Patrol Boat was pounded by three rocket-propelled grenades.

The Navy later awarded Walker with an Accommodation Medal. On one of his three tours through Vietnam, a boat directly behind him was hit by a rocket. The boat started to sink. While the squad still received small arm fire, Walker reversed course, hooked up a tow line to the sinking boat and beached it.

Walker has experienced what thousands of veterans in the United States have experienced. When it comes to the Department of Veteran Affairs, everything is a slow process.
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