As he stood in front of nearly a dozen still and video cameras last week, Vietnam veteran Daniel Mabesoone said he did so with mixed emotions.
“I feel awkward by the attention,” said the humble 60-year-old. “But I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be here.”
The opportunity Mabesoone, an Uncasville resident, spoke of was when he was invited to stand the day before Veterans’ Day in Congressman Joseph Courtney’s Norwich office and accept his elusive Purple Heart medal.
“I was stunned to realize I’d never received the medal,” Mabesoone said.
Mabesoone was 18 years old when in August 1967 he went to the “Benning School for Boys,” the nickname he and his friends gave Fort Benning in Georgia, home of the Army Infantry School, among other specialties. He graduated when he was 19 years old.
Two years later he was deployed to Saigon and later Long Binh. Mabesoone, a rifle battalion leader, was in Vietnam for one year, 1969 through 1970.
In 1969, as a 21-year-old Army 1st Lieutenant with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, Mabesoone and his unit were in search of enemy troops near Saigon when a booby-trap exploded within feet of him. Shrapnel from the device pierced his left eye. He was treated and released back to his unit to finish his deployment. He never questioned whether his injury was recorded appropriately by the federal government.
It wasn’t until years later, in 2007, when Mabesoone sought help from the VA to treat his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, that the veteran discovered the medical notation regarding his combat injury never made it to his discharge papers.
Mabesoone said he still has night sweats as a result of what he experienced in Vietnam. He’s gaining control over them with help from PTSD treatment and support he’s received from the VA and the veterans’ center, he said.
“I suffered for years,” Mabesoone said last week. “They’ve been an enormous help.”
It is as a result of his time at the veterans’ center that he discovered he had never received his Purple Heart.
In August, Mabesoone found himself in Herbert L. Mitchell’s Norwich office asking for advice and assistance with rectifying the issue, in addition to other processing other claims.
“He came into the office with unique cases that needed attention,” said Mitchell, a veterans’ service officer with the state’s second district within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “I wanted, and I could, help him.”
With everything Mabesoone and his family had gone through, not having his medal took on a greater significance.
“I was disappointed,” Mabesoone said.
Mitchell had Mabesoone’s claim folder transferred to his office and began to meticulously go through its contents. There, he found an obscure medical record, listing Mabesoone’s eye injury.
Three months later, on Nov. 10, in front of friends, family, and fellow veterans Mabesoone received his medal.
“It’s nice to put a spotlight on a hero,” Congressman Courtney said of Mabesoone. “It’s been an honor to help with the process to get this man the recognition he deserves.”
This significance of the moment did not escape Mabesoone’s grandchildren.
“It’s huge,” Gaynor Parker said, as he and his sisters, Alexis Parker, 9, and Alyssa Parker, 8, watched their grandfather open and close the black leather case housing the gold and purple honor. “A lot of people don’t realize what people like my grandfather have done for the country or what it takes to be a soldier.”
By Megan Bard
Day Staff Writer