Silver Star soldier: Belated medal marks Vietnam valor

Silver Star soldier: Belated medal marks Vietnam valor
Sgt. Ernie Slavik III spent the night of June 19, 1967, under enemy fire, dragging seven wounded soldiers from a bloody battlefield in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to a successful medical evacuation.

Slavik, a longtime Antioch resident, will be honored for his valor that night on Sunday, when U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington, is scheduled to present him with a Silver Star for gallantry in action during a ceremony at the VFW hall in Addison.

It won’t be Slavik’s first such honor. He has already been awarded a Purple Heart and a Silver Star for “exceptionally valorous actions” on July 11, 1967, when he took out two enemy bunkers and several insurgents during a firefight in which he fought in the open under heavy enemy fire and was credited with turning the tide of that battle. He was wounded in three places by grenade shrapnel.

Slavik, 65, who now likes to spend his time duck hunting and fishing near his Channel Lake home, hasn’t spoken often of his heroic actions in the 43 years since they occurred.

“I didn’t do what I did in Vietnam to be a hero or get awards,” he said in an interview Friday. “I did it to keep my comrades and myself alive and do my share to show the world the extremes that Americans (will go to) to keep the freedom that we have in America.”

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Belated medal marks Vietnam valor