{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397701", "Neptune City Vietnam Vet finally collects Bronze Star", "2014-11-10", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "BY DAN RADEL APP STAFF WRITER - When he returned from the Vietnam War in 1970, Richard A. Walker, Jr. did not want to receive his Bronze Star.\r\n\u201cIn the \u201960s and \u201970s being a military person you got spit on, called baby killers. It was better to be obscure than chastised,\u201d said Walker, 66, of Neptune City.\r\n\u201cAnd I never liked the way we ended it there by just walking out,\u201d he added\r\nBorn in Point Pleasant, his family moved to Wall Township where he dropped out of high school and volunteered to go to Vietnam in 1965. The United States Army sent him to Germany instead.\r\nSo he re-enlisted for another three years.\r\n\u201cI had some friends who went over and died and I thought I had to go. I had to get into the fight,\u201d said Walker.\r\nIn 1969, he got the deployment he wanted and touched down in Vietnam on Dec. 6, 1969, into what he said was the most intense experience in his life. It was \u201csheer panic all the time,\u201d a blur, and Walker, who achieved the rank of sergeant, is still not absolutely sure what he did to earn the Bronze Star.\r\n\u201cYour commanders are the ones who put you down for the awards and you don\u2019t always know what you did,\u201d said Walker.\r\nHe knew in 1970 when he received his DD Form 214 \u2014 the Report of Separation \u2014 when his service was complete that someone had put him down for the honor.\r\nBut he opted to put his military life behind him, marry and raise a family.\r\n\u201cHe never talked about it. He only recently started opening up about it, going through pictures,\u201d said his son, Steven Walker, 34.\r\nSteven Walker, an Ocean Township police officer, encouraged his father to seek his long overdue medal and the recognition he never got.\r\nThey wrote Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., in September, who got back to them in \u201crecord time,\u201d said the younger Walker.\r\n\u201cThis was a slip up that needed to be made right,\u201d said Smith, who chaired the Veterans Committee in the House of Representatives for four years. \u201cI am glad his son prompted (him) to seek them because he served his country honorably.\u201d\r\nSmith contacted the National Archives\u2019 National Person Records Center and the Army approved Walker\u2019s Bronze Star, and a half-dozen more medals.\r\nSmith presented them to Walker on Friday at a small ceremony at his second-floor Freehold Township office.\r\n\u201cI\u2019m very appreciative of it. I wish I could share it with everyone who didn\u2019t come back,\u201d said Walker.\r\nHis son intends to keep the medals, with his father\u2019s service photos, next his grandfather\u2019s burial flag for his World War II service.\r\nOriginally printed on Nov. 8, 2014 in the Asbury Pak Press and online at:  \r\nhttp://www.app.com/story/news/local/2014/11/07/neptune-city-vietnam-veteram-gets-bronze-medal/18670083/", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397701"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7465181406587362, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}