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Purple Heart recipients inducted into chapter

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Five Tinker personnel who were wounded while on active duty were recognized Saturday night during the annual banquet of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

Honorees who attended the event were Senior Master Sgt. Melissa M. Garrett of the 960th Airborne Air Control Squadron, and Senior Airman Michael J. Helsdingen of the 72nd Security Forces Squadron. Honorees who were unable to attend the banquet were Maj. Gary R. Sandt of the 963rd AACS, Airman 1st Class Giovanni A. Flores of the 72 SFS, and Master Sgt. Flor D. Morales of the 375th Operations Group.

"I have never talked to anybody that has a tougher initiation than you guys have," retired Army Maj. Bill Gaddis said before relating the history of the Purple Heart award. The combat decoration is "one of our nation's highest awards" and was created at the behest of then-Gen. George Washington for "extraordinary service," he said.

Mr. Gaddis is a distant relative of one of the first three non-commissioned officers who received the Badge of Military Merit, forerunner of the Purple Heart medal, in 1783 during America's Revolutionary War.

"Our nation has consistently had a number of brave patriots who have volunteered, and volunteer still, to go into harm's way to protect the freedoms of the many," said Col. Steven Bleymaier, commander of Tinker's 72nd Air Base Wing and guest speaker at the banquet. "Many of those patriots have paid the price of freedom with their lives. Many more have returned with visible and invisible wounds."

Sergeants Garrett and Morales received their Purple Hearts from a terrorist attack while deployed to Saudi Arabia. They were living in Khobar Towers when the compound was targeted by terrorists. On June 25, 1996, a bomb placed outside of the compound was detonated. Nineteen U.S. servicemen and one Saudi were killed and 372 other persons were injured, including Sergeants Garrett and Morales, who were cut by flying glass.

Airman Helsdingen was deployed to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan on Aug. 2, 2011, when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device. He lost consciousness and sustained a fractured left foot, and while he was being transported back to Bagram his vehicle rolled into a ditch. Eventually he was evacuated back to the base.

"We are truly thankful for your service and sacrifice," Colonel Blaymaier told the honorees.

"Freedom is not free," he emphasized. "As our stellar surrounding community reminds us every day with its awesome road signs, 'We Live in The Land of the Free Because of the Brave'."