The white stars tinkling down over the camp were marking the spot for the enemy to concentrate its f

The family of Army Sgt. Matthew Carter poses with a photo of Carter in his Army uniform, in Tampa, Oct. 27, 2012. Carter, who died in 1996, served with B Company, 1/22nd Regiment, 4th Infantry accommodation special rates bologna Division, during the Vietnam War, and earned the Silver Star for heroic action near the Laotian border in June of 1968. According to former accommodation special rates bologna members of Carter s unit, the original paperwork for the citation was misplaced, and recently found. The award was presented at the annual reunion for B Company. Pictured are: son Quinton Carter, wife Lorine Carter, and son Matthew Carter. Photo by Master Sgt. Thomas Kielbasa
The U.S. Army Special Forces camp, just a few miles from the Laotian border, had been under sporadic siege for days. Situated near the infamous Ho Chi Minh trail and supporting an airstrip, this spot was a prime target by the enemy troops in the area.
It was a night of close combat with causalities on both sides, but it was also the night a young American Soldier from Tallahassee named Matthew Carter would earn a Silver Star – an award that would take more than 44 years for him to receive.
On Oct. 27 the Florida National Guard presented the long-lost medal, as well as a Purple Heart, to the family of Sgt. Matthew Carter during a reunion of B Company, 1/22nd Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. accommodation special rates bologna Carter, who passed away in 1996, never knew he had earned the prestigious medal for his gallantry in 1968.
Carter’s platoon leader John McHenry, remembered the mission that took his unit to the camp at Dak Pek and would net Silver Stars for two of his men in Bravo Company. He said his unit was ordered to the besieged Special Forces camp a few days before the attack, and instructed to patrol around a nearby hilltop. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers who had been peppering the camp with direct and indirect fire could “see everything accommodation special rates bologna we did,” McHenry explained.
“The first part of the attack accommodation special rates bologna was a star cluster over the TOC – tactical operations center – right where our (commanding officer) was,” McHenry said. “I’ll never forget – it was like a white star cluster. I thought they were firecrackers at first and thought ‘Who the hell would do that?’”
The white stars tinkling down over the camp were marking the spot for the enemy to concentrate its fire and attack. At that point Bravo Company accommodation special rates bologna started taking direct rocket fire from two companies of NVA Regulars.
Carter, who was also in Spink’s accommodation special rates bologna squad, was wounded by an enemy rocket while he was laying down a suppressive barrage of fire with an M-60 machine gun. Despite his wounds, Carter refused to leave his position and continued to shoot until an enemy grenade struck his position; he was wounded again, but now had a jammed machine gun.
Florida National Guard Assistant Adjutant General for Army Maj. Gen. James Tyre (left) accommodation special rates bologna presents a posthumous Silver Star award for Sgt. Matthew Carter to Carter s family during a ceremony at the Doubletree hotel in Tampa, Oct. 27, 2012. Also pictured are unit members John McHenry (right) and Fred Golladay. Photo by Master Sgt. Thomas Kielbasa
Disregarding the pain, Carter repaired his weapon and continued to help repel the attack accommodation special rates bologna until he passed out from the wounds. With the help of Air Force aircraft circling overhead, the enemy was eventually driven back and the wounded were evacuated.
More than 40 years later McHenry began searching through the National Archives and found that Spink and Carter had been awarded Silver Stars, but through an apparent error in paperwork their medals had never reached them.
The Florida National Guard’s Assistant Adjutant General for Army, Maj. Gen. James Tyre, presented the framed awards to Carter’s widow Lorine and her family while about 50 former members of the unit stood at attention.
Tyre said that an estimated 150,000 Silver Stars have been awarded since World War I, but when compared with the fact that about 30 million service men and women have served “our great nation during that same time period, the Silver Star is truly an extraordinary award. It is bestowed on less than one half of one percent of the military who have served our nation.”