Today in the mail I received Pieters military discharge paperwork as we needed it for a recent car purchase for a Military rebate. I was shocked when I received the set of papers. Not only was Pieter a recipient of the National Defense Service Medal, Navy Good Conduct Medal (2), a Sea Service Deployment Ribbon w/1 star, but my husband received the Vietnam Service Medal w/Bronze Star. I went through 3 pages of Navy Discharge Pages from the National Personnel Records Center (Archives) and was so proud he received the Bronze Star. When we sat down as we do every night when I get home, he opened it up, handed it to me so I could fax it to Kia Motors, I asked why he never told me about it or talked about it. I was teary eyed when he said it was no big deal Mary and found out what he did to receive that award. He carried a man to safety and Pieter had been shot himself in the leg. I was amazed after 21 years of marriage and he never told me about this....he is such a humble man. I knew he was in Vietnam but he never talked about his awards. Then we opened up Annalyses most recent letter and she proceeded to tell us both about her being undefeated in the pugal stick and combative fighting in her company and weight class (over 150 lbs.) - this just all made my night! Like father, like daughter as you can say, I am proud tonight of both of them! I dont cry often but I walked our dog Gunner tonight and cried tears of pride and joy for both my husbands military awards and our daughters recent fighting and shooting accomplishments. Annalyses letter by the way started out this way (ha ha)...beware of any language! Your daughter is officially a badass. She said only she and Williams were the only 2 girls in the entire company to go undefeated with every fight in pugils and combatives. She said she also got to shoot the M240B and the M249 and loved it. She said by the end of this week she should be in blue phase. I just have to brag about both of them because I am so very proud of them both! Thanks for listening! A proud wife and momma! Go Navy (Pieter) and Army National Guard (Annalyse)!
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 00:39:27 +0000