Alpha Company honor for actions in Vietnam, saves home for one of them

Vietnam Vet's Honor For Heroism Saves His Home
By Andy Banker FOX2now.com
October 14, 2009


ST. CLAIR COUNTY, IL (KTVI-FOX2now.com) - President Obama may be unknowingly putting an end to a caboose controversy near Columbia, Illinois. He's about to bestow an honor upon the man who calls that caboose home. Kenny Euge, 60, is a metal sculptor and Vietnam veteran, threatened with eviction after complaints about his house and his art.

Tuesday, he and the other surviving members of the U.S. Army's 11th Armored Calvary's "Alpha" troop, will receive the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in battle, March 26th, 1970, near the Cambodian border, during the Vietnam War.

That eviction threat faded after news of the award.

"A lot of things that are discarded, really have a lot of value, you know," Euge said outside his home near the St. Clair County-Monroe County border outside Columbia, Illinois.

His artworks include what he calls the "Corvette god": a scuplture made from lawn mower pistons, a Corvette wheel, and a casting of his daughter's face.

"A lot of my stuff, I'm sure comes out of my Vietnam experience," he said. "There's so much stuff out there that can be put together and completely change your thought, that's useful; even down to my house."

He saved the old Missouri Pacific caboose from a scrap heap about 30 years ago. It had sentimental value for a young man who followed in his father's footseps as a railroad worker, footsteps Euge estimates his father tread through that very caboose thousands of times.
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Vietnam Vet's Honor For Heroism Saves His Home