By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Staff Sgt. Leonard Kern did not receive the welcome home from war he thought he should have received, but he received a gift Saturday that honored him in a way he did not think possible.
Four servicemen were honored by Quilts of Valor during the RPM Speedway races on Saturday. Quilts of Valor makes quilts for both veterans and active service personnel who have been affected by war. Those men who received quilts were Kern, David “Spud” Richardson, Jim Dinkel and Stan Dreiling. Dreiling was not able to attend the ceremony Saturday.
Staff Sgt. Kern, 41, of Hays served from 1995 to 2009. He served a two-year deployment overseas. He was first deployed to Korea, but once his unit was set to come home, they were rerouted to serve another year in Iraq.
Most service personnel are deployed for no longer than a year. The extra time overseas was taxing on the soldiers. Kern said he was lucky. He came home unscathed and so did all the men under his command. Others in the 503rd Infantry Regiment were not so lucky.
Twenty men in the command of 600 died and 150 were injured. Some of the soldiers who came back to the states with him had received three Purple Hearts.
“When we came home, our family and friends were there,” he said. “There was no parade. … There damn should have been.”
The long deployment took with heavy action in Iraq took its toll on the men when they returned home as well.
The group had a high rate of domestic violence and DUI.
Kern comes from a long line of military men. He never wanted to admit to PTSD but said he knows he brought home some of his experiences from war. He said he is not always the man he wants to be.
“I have heightened awareness,” he said. “I walk into a room, and I judge people. I am looking for where the threats are. I had that before, being in the military, but being in combat heightens that.”
Receiving a quilt from the Quilts of Valor program was the honor he felt he and his fellow soldiers should have received when they came home from Iraq. He said he was elated to receive the quilt.
“I think it was the coolest thing that has happened to be since I got back,” he said. “It made me happy. I was very impressed.”
Kern’s boss’s daughter nominated the group of men for quilts and her aunt helped her sew them.
“I gave her a hug, and then I gave her another hug,” he said. “It was awesome.
Kern, who now works as a mechanic, said his experience in Iraq has resulted in him not taking life for granted.
“I just take one day at a time, because every day could be your last,” he said.
David Richardson
Despite some of the ugliness Sgt. First Class David Richardson has seen in the world, he said his service made him see other cultures in a new light and gave him optimism for change.
Richardson served in the Army from 1989 to October 2015. He served in different roles, but his most recent duties were in artillery. He had multiple overseas deployments including Germany, Bosnia, Desert Storm, Iraq and Africa.
Each theater gave him a unique perspective into the people of those regions.
Richardson, 47, Victoria, was part of the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia after the brutal civil war ravaged in that region. The country split on ethnic lines when it declared independence from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. An estimated 100,000 people were killed in the war, and 2.2 million people of all ethnicities were displaced.
During his first deployment to Bosnia, Richardson was part of security forces attempting to separate the Bosnians from the Serbs. When Richardson reached the region for the second time, the fighting had calmed, but the destruction was evident.
“In Croatia and some places in that area, you could see the destruction, especially in downtown Sarajevo,” he said. “There is sniper alley. You could see where the Serbs had just sat up on the ridge line and pounded the town, the buildings and Olympic stadium. You did not have to look far to see the damage.”
Richardson said he took satisfaction in helping the people of Bosnia rebuild after the war.
“When you work with people who have been, so to speak, beat down and have no idea how to rebuild from there, they always need help,” he said. “To be a part of something like that — to rebuild a nation, to rebuild a country — it is a wonderful feeling because at the end of the day, you have that sense of accomplishment.
“We tend to go places and people back home don’t understand why we are in theaters. As a soldier, you get to see those things,” he said of the rebuilding, “and you get to see the day-to-day changes. It always gives you that opportunity to see that change is possible. I believe in myself that it makes you a better person to see how fortunate we are back home as a people versus how some of these people live in other countries.”
Richardson was only deployed during Desert Storm for six months. He said the deployment was so short and focused that he had little time to soak in what was happening around him.
Iraq, however, was a whole different story.
Richardson was the team leader of a six-member quick reaction force. His group’s mission was to respond when a convoy encountered an improvised explosive device or enemy ambush. They engaged the enemy and helped the convoy reach safety.
“Iraq was more ramped up,” he said. “Every time you went outside of the wire, your head was on a swivel. You were looking around. You were making sure, first of all, that your team was going to be safe and you are going to be safe and you are keeping the routes and the convoys safe.”
The city’s especially were hotbeds of enemy activity. Quiet and calm was not a good sign.
“One day, you are driving through a city and it is business as usual and then, the next day, it is quiet, so it was kind of an eerie feeling,” he said. “Yesterday, you went through that town and everyone was playing and business as usual. Then you roll through the next day, and no one is around. It was like ‘OK, something bad is going to happen.’ Not all of the time did it happen, but most of the time it did whether it be an IED or ambush or something like that. Most of the time we were able to push through it and just keep going.”
Despite the violence Richardson experienced in Iraq, he urges others to judge people as individuals instead of stereotyping.
“I think you are going to have bad people and you are going to have good people no matter what you do, no matter what theater, whether it is in the United States or a foreign country,” he said. “There are people who there is no way to convince them there is something outside of hate and discontent. Then there are people who are there who actually need the help.
“I think throughout my experience it helped me to read people better. You never judge a book by its cover. You have to get through the first chapter or least the first couple of pages to understand how things are and how these people live on a day-to-day basis. You can’t go out there and say I don’t think this of this guy or these people because of this or that. It is just wrong. You have to speak to these people, see how they act, how they react, how they think.
“If you ever get a chance to go over to a foreign country and see how they run things versus the way we do things here, I think a lot people’s eyes would open up. It is not what most people think it is.”
Richardson’s last deployment was to Monrovia, Liberia, a coastal nation in West Africa. Liberia has suffered through two civil wars during the last 40 years. More than 250,000 people have been killed. Although peace was reached, the conflicts wreaked havoc on the country’s economy. Eighty-five percent of the Liberian people live below the international poverty line, which was calculated by the World Bank in 2015 to be $1.90 per day. Richardson’s mission in Liberia was to train Liberian troops.
“By the time I left, there were several people throughout the Liberian army who I had become friends with,” he said, “and I still talk to via Facebook. I like to check up on them and see how things are going. It is a sense of accomplishment. It is something that made me feel like I did something, and I did something right.
“It is not about me doing something for myself. It is about me doing something for my country. If we can better our country, then [we] can teach these other countries this is how we do things to better ourselves. It is not that hard. It does take time. It doesn’t happen over night.”
Richardson, who is now the parts manager at Dreiling Field Service, said he was pleased to receive a quilt, but said he thought others were more worthy.
“I am very thankful I am being honored with this and for this, but I guess my biggest thing is that even if I am getting something, there is more we can do for our soldiers who are out there and veterans who are out there,” he said. “I think we need to recognize those soldiers also.”
“People who have not served in the service do not understand the sacrifices a soldier makes, nor do they understand what sacrifices the families make. It is not just the soldier who is deploying. In a sense the soldier’s spouse, children and family, they are deploying too. They have to change their lifestyle because that soldier, sailor or airmen is not going to be around for a year, eight months, six months. It is very hard. It is not easy for people to make change like that. They also need recognition.”
Jim Dinkel
Spec. Fourth Class Jim Dinkel, 69, Hays, was drafted during the Vietnam War, but served as part of the U.S. forces in Korea from 1968 to ’70.
He entered the military as an infantryman, but because of a lack police, he was given on-the-job training to become an MP. He and his peers patrolled the Second Infantry Division, which was roughly the size of Ellis County.
Although Dinkel was never in combat, tensions were running high along the DMZ at that time.
“The North Koreans intimidated back then, just as they do now,” he said.
During Dinkel’s time in Korea, the Pueblo incident occurred. The North Koreans captured a U.S. naval vessel and held U.S. service personnel hostage.
On a Sunday in August 1969, North Koreans shot and killed eight UN command soldiers who were repairing a demarcation line tape at the DMZ.
Anti-military sentiments were prevalent during and after Vietnam, but Dinkel said he was spared much of this because he had been stationed in Korea instead of Vietnam.
“The guys coming from Vietnam, they went through hell,” he said.
Dinkel said his time in Korea made him more thankful for the advantages he has an American.
“I complain about a lot of foods we ate,” he said. “You go oversees and see a little farmer growing vegetables in a ditch. It had a pretty positive effect on me.”
Dinkel, retired, has been a longtime member of the VFW and a member of the VFW Honor Guard.
“It is an honor for me to get it,” he said of his Quilt of Valor, “but I think there are probably more people more deserving than me.”