Vietnam veteran medals returned

Flathead war vet medals returned
MTN News
by Laura Wilson
Posted: Feb 11, 2014

KALISPELL - The stolen medals of a Vietnam Veteran are back where they belong Tuesday, as authorities were able to recover and return all of them to their rightful owner.

Greg Smith never could have imagined someone would steal his deceased brother's war medals from right out of his Kalispell store, nor could he have imagined the way the community would rally around him, once they were taken.

"Everybody wanted to get involved and find the suspect. It was really nice and I appreciated the support," Smith said.

Smith's shadowbox was stolen last month. Authorities quickly got to work recovering as much of the war memorial as possible-even taking a metal detector to the snow to locate the Purple Heart.

"They went way over and beyond what they needed to. For my family, it's nice and comforting that everyone cared," Smith said.

"It's not unusual for officers in our department and other departments to work together to solve a lot of the crimes that happen. In this case, it was really neat to see the amount of effort that everyone put in to try and work on it," said Brett Corbet, Kalispell Police Department Patrol Sgt.
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