Shot 3 times, he spent a year in the hospital. Kentucky man is finally getting his medals

It was about 3 a.m. when an Army unit operating near Hue, Vietnam, was attacked.

“We were overrun,” said Vietnam veteran James R. Crain. On the night of May 21, 1968, North Vietnamese forces and Viet Cong, hiding in the darkness, began firing upon American positions at Camp Eagle, a U.S. base just south of the border that used to divide North and South Vietnam.

“I was hit three separate times during that fight,” said Crain, who now lives in Lawrenceburg. “That’s why I was supposed to receive my Purple Heart.”

Crain was exposed to more than gunfire.

“An RPG, which is a rocket-propelled-grenade, hit within three feet of me,” Crain said. “It blowed everything off of me. All my clothes except for (his right) shirt sleeve, part of my shirt and my pant leg. Also blowed the plastic stock off my M16.”

Crain never received that Purple Heart, which would have been his second from the war. He also never got a Combat Infantry Badge, an Army medal given to soldiers after they’ve been in their first firefight. On Monday — more than 50 years later — Crain will get those medals and five more.

U.S. Rep. Andy Barr will give Crain the medals at a ceremony in Lexington during a meeting of the Sixth District Veterans Coalition, which is a collection of veterans from across Central Kentucky organized by Barr’s office in 2013. In a recent interview, Barr said that his office fields a high volume of requests from veterans seeking lost or never-issued military medals.

Born in Louisville in 1948, Crain has called Kentucky home for his entire life. He said his great-grandfather served in World War I, his grandfather in World War II, his uncle in Korea and his brother was at the Bay of Pigs. In 1967, while a teenager, Crain joined the Army.

“I felt like it was my duty,” Crain said. He joined the 101st Airborne Division and was sent to off to war. He said he was in Vietnam for “well, too long. That’s the only way I’ll answer that.”

After he was wounded, Crain spent significant time in the hospital. He never felt like pursuing the decorations the Army failed to give him.

“At the time, I didn’t really want them,” Crain said. “I just did my job, spent a year in the hospital and went on to my next duty station.”

After nine years of service, he left the military in 1975.

After the military, Crain met his wife and had a daughter. His daughter graduated from Anderson County High School and then Midway College. Since he’s aged, he reconsidered the importance of the medals.

“I’m 70 now, soon to be 71,” Crain said. “I wanted (the medals) for my daughter before I passed.

“It’s the most important thing to my heart.”

In August, Crain wrote to Barr’s office asking for his Combat Infantry Badge. He was soon informed that he was in line to receive the seven medals. He was asked if he would want to Barr present them.

“Of course I would since he got them for me,” Crain said.

The ceremony will be at 6 p.m. Monday on the second floor of the Forcht Bank in Hamburg. About 200 veterans usually attend the quarterly Sixth District Veterans Coalition meetings, Barr said.

“It’s a real humbling experience,” Barr said of presenting medals to veterans. “These are American heroes who have sacrificed a lot for all of us, and for our freedom.”