By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado
More than 50 years after being injured in the Vietnam War, a Larimer County veteran received one of the armed service’s most distinguished medals — the Purple Heart.
U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse presented the veteran with the long overdue honor at an emotional ceremony.
For Carl Smith, it is the final leg of a decades-long journey that took him to the jungles of Vietnam, where he was injured twice by explosives, making him eligible for the Purple Heart. It is an honor he should have received 54 years ago but, the military couldn’t find his medical records. Congressman Neguse found the medic who treated him instead and set the record straight.
Neguse called Smith a local hero, “Whose courage under fire and willingness to serve our country knew and knows no ends. It’s something we can never repay you for, but we’ll spend a lifetime trying.”