Moments before Ron Backstrom was given two Purple Hearts at Hibbings VFW Post 8510 in Hibbing, Minn., he listened as a former Sedan man, Michael Holroyd, turned back the clock nearly 40 years.

Holroyd, Backstrom‘s former Vietnam platoon commander in the 23rd Americal Division of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, had driven from Kansas, and was about to give two of his three Purple Hearts to Backstrom.

Why?

“Cause I’m getting ready to croak, and I didnt want to croak without him at least getting a chance to get what he deserves,” Holroyd said in an interview with the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Previously, with hands and voice trembling at times, Holroyd explained, in stirring detail, two snapshots in time moments that Holroyd said justified giving Backstrom, of Hibbing, the Purple Heart medals he deserves. The Purple Heart is awarded to military personnel who are wounded or killed as a result of enemy action.

In March 1969, while advancing on a hill, the two men‘s platoon came under heavy land mine, grenade and machine gun fire. They attempted to back down the hill, but they, and the platoons behind them, were receiving 57mm recoiless rifle fire from the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

Holroyd, who was the platoons lieutenant, said his commander ordered him to fire at the top of the hill and continue upward, along with Ron Backstrom. He said the platoon made several efforts to take the hill and succeeded somehow, and then became surrounded by well dug-in NVA.

He said a napalm strike was first ordered, then called off because the platoon was so close to the enemy. But the air strike was again ordered, because without it they were going to die anyway.

“When the napalm shells fell, they first sucked all of the air out of our lungs, and we took the hill,” Holroyd said.

They fought for eight days and nights at this location mortared every 15 minutes for three days and nights. Holroyd said they had called in large guns on their position, and at great personal risk to everyone because it was night.”

“They tried to overrun us until the end,” he said.

With a slight stutter, Holroyd continued, saying his soldiers had no reinforcements, ammunition, food or water for days. They stacked up NVA bodies around their foxholes and bunkers, to make the holes deeper because of the soil conditions, he said.

Holroyd said everyone was affected to a maximum degree by terror, thirst, hunger and the loss of buddies, but somehow, they endured.

Ron upheld the most dignity, courage and fighting spirit in any battle, he said. “Without him, we may have been overrun, completely. I depended on him much more than the others.”

Holroyd said Ron was also wounded, along with most of the company. “I do not know why he didn‘t receive his Purple Heart, because I know he got hit with me. He was right beside me,” he added.

He said Backstrom had not received his medals, because they had a new medic that they had to break in, who was flustered and didnt know the proper procedures.

Holroyd said he has been trying for some time to get Backstrom’s military records straightened out, and has filed the formal paperwork.

Backstrom said in an interview that many things were going on before, during and after a firefight.
When you‘re in a firefight, what are you going to do?” he questioned. “Dig out your pen and start writing stuff down?“

Holroyd told the crowd in the VFW of another incident for which he said Backstrom should receive a Purple Heart.

Holroyd said he was in a helicopter and had received a priority medevac call because they were the closest rotary air near the scene.

They landed in a very hot area that was being held by Holroyd‘s former platoon, of which Backstrom was still a member. He said Backstrom was loaded on the helicopter, with a bayonette wound through his foot.
“I‘ll be damned if you can get any closer than that in a battle,” he said.

Backstrom, still sitting on the stool, broke into tears and was comforted by the touch of a fellow veteran.
Ron Backstrom should have received another Purple Heart, said Holroyd.

He said that many records were misplaced or inaccurate because soldiers in Vietnam came and went one at a time, so no one ever knew exactly when they were going to leave, and when they were going to come back, or if they were going to come back.

After Holroyd talked about his Uniform Military Code of Justice rights as an officer in the United States Army, he said, “Assume the position, soldier.”

“I suppose I have to,“ said Backstrom. “You’re my lieutenant.“

Holroyd said, “Today I am!”

“This guy saved my life,” said Backstrom, as he walked up to Holroyd.

After Holroyd pinned the medals on the left side of Backstrom‘s shirt, he addressed the crowd.

“If it wasnt for him, I wouldnt be here, he said. He keeps saying that maybe I saved his life, and maybe I did, but we saved each other.”

“You work together as a team, and that‘s how were here,” he added.

After lunch, and the atmosphere was right, Backstrom sat at a table, and let his shoulders fall slightly.

When you go through that, and you dont get the medal, you already know what you went through, he said. “This is just a piece of material. This is it, up here,” he said, pointing at his head.

“It‘s nice to have the medals,” Backstrom said, “but all of the meaning is in your head. Sure it’s nice to have the medals and put them on your wall at home, but what’s going on up here (again pointing at his head), that’s where the medals are.”

Holroyd grew up in the Sedan area and graduated from Sedan High School in 1966.

His father was Oscar John Holroyd who was a World War II veteran, having flown 66 combat missions in the Pacific.

Holroyd’s mother was Martha Jean Isett and her second husband was Dean Matthew who served as Chautauqua County Attorney.

Holroyd said he met his wife in Sedan, Judy Hallett, and she died two years ago.

He now lives at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he is retired from the military as a disabled veteran.

“I still come back to Sedan on occasion,” he said. “It’s still my home, along with Elgin and Hewins.”

He said most Vietnam veterans went to war alone and came home alone. “As a result, we lost touch with each other,” he said.

But with the coming of the internet, he and many other veterans have found their former fighting comrads, and many such reunions have taken place.

“I just figured I had three Purple Hearts and my friend Ron Backstrom missed out on his altogether. So, I drove to Minnesota and gave him two of mine.”

To read this story and comment on it online, go to taylornews.org. The original story can be found at www.hibbingmn.com. Jeff Warner of the Hibbing Daily Tribune contributed most of the article.

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