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Roland Duprey was one of 15 veterans that Gov. John Baldacci recognized with the Maine Silver Star Honorable Service Medal on Thursday. Duprey was wounded three times in Vietnam while serving as a Navy corpsman attached to the Marines.

MAINE SILVER STAR HONORABLE SERVICE MEDAL

Here is a full list of the veterans who received the award last week; 15 veterans or members of their families attended a ceremony at the State House on Thursday:

Maj. Peter J. Bramsen, Harpswell; Cpl. Ralph C. Damon, Pittston; S/Sgt. Stewart H. Day, Bath; Pfc. Donald V. Dennison, Spruce Head; Cpl. Robert H. Howarth, Nobleboro; T/Sgt. Orville L. Libby, Monmouth; T/Sgt Walter C. Rich, Union; S/Sgt Leonard E. Gaylord, Winthrop; MSgt. Ruel H. Anderson, Cornish; SP4 David E. Bowman Sr., Gorham; Sgt. Elwyn E. Crocker, Winthrop; HMCS (ss) Roland W. Duprey, Augusta; SP5 Ryan D. Jennings, Bowdoinham; LTC Edward E. Langbein, Brunswick; Sgt. Edward F. Strong, Eliot; Pvt. Conrad J. Poisson, Lewiston; Pvt. Dante J. Piermarini, Harpswell; Pfc. Roger A. Poulin, Auburn; Pfc. Afton Farrin, South Bristol; Pvt. Roger H. Chamberlain, Lewiston; T/5 William L. Creamer, Greene; Pfc. Joseph A. Donahue, Gardiner; Pfc. Maynard R. Linscott Jr., Waldoboro; Pfc. Philip A. Roy, Lisbon Falls; Sgt. Omar E. Sanborn, Winslow; Pfc. Raymond E. Spenard, Winslow; 1Lt. Albert L. Farrah, Kittery Point; PFC Kenneth Workman, Belgrade; 1Sgt. Kenneth Finlayson, Portland; 2Lt. Olga M. Finlayson, Portland; CSF Alfred K. Fogg, Freeport; T/3 Louis D. Germani, Portland; T/5 Benjamin H. Lyons, Waterville; T/5 Charles P. Magaw, Vassalboro; Cpl. Elmer R. Shepard, Wells; Pfc. Richard T. Sorenson, Portland; Sgt. David L. Stevens, Brunswick

AUGUSTA — Sometime before the end of this Independence Day weekend, take a minute to silently thank Roland Duprey.

Never heard of him? Doesn't matter – we owe him just the same.

Duprey is one of 15 war veterans who came to the State House Hall of Flags on Thursday to receive the Maine Silver Star Honorable Service Medal from Gov. John Baldacci. For the past three years, Baldacci has bestowed the honor on more than 500 veterans of current and past wars who either earned a Purple Heart or were taken prisoner of war.

In other words, behind each of the names, ranks and dates of service lies a story of courage, hardship and, above all, honor.

Here is but one.

Duprey, 62, grew up in the Aroostook County town of Eagle Lake. Upon graduating from high school, he headed for Boston and was enrolled in a medical technology school when word came in 1967 that his cousin had been killed in Vietnam.

"That's when I decided to enlist," Duprey said.

The Navy told him he'd be well-suited to become a hospital corpsman – the equivalent of an Army medic. At the outset, it sounded like a pretty good deal.

"They told me you'll always be in a warm bed, get three hot meals and a cot," Duprey recalled. "And they said, 'Nobody will be shooting at you.'"

Right. Ten months later, Duprey said, "I'm in a foxhole and people are trying to kill me."

He arrived in Vietnam in early 1968, just before the Tet Offensive. He remembers one thing about his first day in theater.

"I was scared," he said. "I was really scared."

So scared that an Army sergeant approached him and asked what was wrong.

"I'm really scared," Duprey replied.

"Well, you have every right to be," the sergeant told him. "I have a little advice for you. Just accept the fact that you're dead already. Right now, you're dead already. Then you can be of use to everybody."

Duprey took the advice. And not once, not twice, but three times it almost became a reality.

The first came on Feb. 4, 1968. A Marine rifle company to which Duprey had been attached was charging the village of Phu Loc when a young Marine went down right in front of him. Duprey, as he'd been trained to do, rushed in to help.

"I had him in my arms," he said. "I had just picked him up to get him to cover and a mortar went off right close by. And he took the brunt of it."

The Marine died instantly. Duprey took shrapnel in his legs and side.

These days, his wounds would likely mean an immediate ticket out of the battle zone aboard a medevac helicopter. But back then, with casualties everywhere and medical choppers in short supply, it meant "getting patched up by a few of my buddies" and immediately rejoining the fight.

"It's amazing what happens when you're young and scared," Duprey said. "The adrenaline kicks in."

Less than a month later, Duprey's platoon was in the city of Hue, where much of the Tet Offensive's heaviest fighting took place. There, on March 1, shrapnel from a grenade hit Duprey in his head and down his right side.

Again, his fellow corpsmen patched him up. Again, he rejoined his platoon.

The next day, Duprey and his comrades were in the back of a troop truck passing around a single cup of hot chocolate – they hadn't tasted anything hot for three weeks. Sitting over the left rear wheel, Duprey took his sip just as a buried explosive detonated.

"It went off directly underneath me," he said. "I ended up with compression fractures of three vertebrae in my spine."

More than 40 years later, it still shows. Duprey, his Purple Heart pinned to his brown plaid shirt, walked with a slight limp Thursday as he stepped up, shook Baldacci's hand and returned to his seat.

After he finally got out of Vietnam, Duprey's career in the Navy would go on to last 22 years, including 12 years as a senior chief hospital corpsman aboard various...