During the Vietnam War, Chuck Volkey was a superb medic (he only lost one soldier in the field), an exemplary soldier (he received an "excellent" conduct and efficiency rating from the U.S. Army) and a dedicated soul (he spent part of his leave time in Saigon).

Until recently the Dellona resident’s hard work and dedication to his country has gone unnoticed, but no longer.

During his two years, seven months and five days of active service with the Army, Volkey, 61, was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Bronze Star Medal. He also was given the Combat Medical Badge, but it was never reflected in his paperwork because he failed to turn in a DD Form 214 before leaving Vietnam.

"The Headquarters Company said I was approved for the Combat Medical Badge, and said I had to walk this form over to the office," he said. "I went to town instead for drinks, and lost the form in my locker."

During his service with the National Guard from 1978 to 1983, Volkey hand wrote on the form that he was a Combat Medical Badge recipient. But while working with a social worker at the Tomah Veterans Affairs office recently, he asked to have his form amended to show he had officially received the award.

When he received a letter from the Army’s Board for Correction of Military Records this May, he was greeted with a pleasant surprise.

"They found out I had all these other things coming, too," Volkey said.

Nearly 40 years after returning from Vietnam, Volkey will soon be receiving an Army Good Conduct Medal, another Bronze Star and a Silver Star (the equivalent of five Bronze Stars), a Valorous Unit Award, a Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm Unit Citation and the Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Honor Medal First Class Unit Citation.

"It would’ve been nice 40 years ago to tell me I had this, when I was in the National Guard," Volkey said. "I would’ve looked better when we dressed up. I was a little embarrassed by how little I had."

Volkey joined the Army in March 1967 so he wouldn’t get drafted, and because he "thought we were fighting communism."

After eight weeks of basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and 10 weeks of medical training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Volkey flew to Saigon — now Ho Chi Minh City — on Aug. 17, 1967 for assignment.

"I joined the Army as a medic because I was hoping to get a hospital job," he said.

Volkey was transported to Cu Chi where he was sat on bleachers with other soldiers and told where he would be going.

Volkey was assigned to Company A, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry as a field medic. "Others went to nicer jobs," Volkey conceded.

He said he remained calm and didn’t worry too much while serving five months in the field."Medics spend six months in the field, usually," he said. But Volkey was pulled from the field after only five months because his superiors said he had seen too much.

Were they right? "Yeah," Volkey said. "I think that was true."

He remembers trying in vain to save a man who was shot between the eyes on Halloween 1967. He remembers emptying his entire medical bag one day trying to bandage one soldier.

He remembers attending to an injured soldier in a rice paddy while bullets flew past his head. And he remembers being shot at more than once from the bushes while trying to board a helicopter.

"I believe the word ‘hero’ is used too lightly, today," he said. "What I saw. I saw heroes. Pilots who came in no matter what to get men. Taking their life in their hands every day."After returning from the field, Volkey spent another seven months at the headquarters camp in Cu Chi as a pharmacist of sorts. He would help the doctors with sick call every morning and would hand out medication to the wounded.

Every couple of weeks, he and the doctors would also visit the Vietnamese towns and treat the people’s ailments, usually sore muscles.

"I don’t know if they got sore muscles from working in the fields, or from digging tunnels," Volkey said.

Snipers in underground tunnels and booby traps were a big concern for the soldiers in the field, he said, and Cu Chi was a tunnel haven.

After a month of leave time, Volkey returned to Vietnam to work at the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. He was assigned to the sick call room because his superiors knew he had seen the same kind of carnage in the field that he would be seeing in the sick-call room.

"Most of the stuff we got was pretty bad," he said. The soldiers they received were the ones who couldn’t be treated in the field.Volkey worked in Saigon until he was relieved of duty on Oct. 24, 1969. He was taken to Oakland, Calif., and set loose.

After the war, Volkey returned to Wisconsin and went to work for Monona Masonry. "Fortunately I went to work right away," he said. "At least it kept my mind off things."

Regardless of the work, Volkey said he started drinking every night and later started smoking marijuana.

He cleaned up his act while living in Portland for seven or eight years in the mid to late ’70s, but was back to drinking when he returned to Wisconsin.

"In 1998, I realized something was wrong," he said.

He went to the VA in Tomah and they gave him medication to deal with post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD). Volkey continued working as a self-employed construction worker, but returned to the VA in 2006 for a 10-week PTSD treatment course.

They prescribed a couple of new medications and Volkey said he is now more relaxed and can thinking clearly again.

"My psychologist said I was self-medicating myself for all those years," Volkey said.However, because of his medications, Volkey has been classified as 70 percent disabled by the federal government. He said his medications make him feel dizzy, and he can no longer climb ladders or work on roofs because he is afraid he will lose his balance and fall.

Last year he applied for 100 percent disability, but was denied in January. He now has a year to prove why he believes he has "individual unemployability."

"They are saying the meds and my inability to work aren’t connected," he said.

While working with his social worker to receive disability pay, Volkey mentioned that he wanted to amend his DD Form 214 to show his Combat Medical Badge. That was when he found out he had more medals coming.

If he is classified as 100 percent disabled, Volkey said he would like to volunteer at the Tomah VA as well as with Habitat for Humanity. Until then, he will continue to fight.

"Once I receive (100 percent disability)," he said, "I can finally put the war behind me."