Larry Dobson receives Purple Heart from Senator Chuck Schumer
SYRACUSE -- It took more than forty years but, a local veteran finally has the Purple Heart for wounds received on the battlefields of Vietnam.
Larry Dobson, of Onondaga County, was a 19 year old soldier serving with the 82 Airborne Division in Vietnam.
On April 16, 1969, a truck Dobson was riding in hit a landmine. It was a moment Dobson has never forgotten. "You not only ever forget it but you relive it constantly over and over again it constantly replays," he says. Dobson spent months recovering from the blast. His wounds healed but his Purple Heart never came. That is until his wife got involved and, thanks to the help of Senator Chuck Schumer, Dobson was awarded his Purple Heart by Senator Schumer during a ceremony at Hancock Airport Monday.
" It's hard to put into words what it feels like to work for something for 40 years," Dobson says. In addition to the Purple Heart, Dobson also earned a Bronze Star for combat actions in Vietnam. Dobson says he is dedicating his Purple Heart to all of his fellow Vietnam Vets who never made it back home. "I wish I could give this to the thousands of other GI's who I was with. There is too many of them that paid the ultimate sacrifice for this," he says.
