News / Military
By Howard Altman / Tampa Bay Times / August 19, 2016
PHOTO: U.S. Rep. David Jolly, right, presents service awards Friday to Jim Shanyfelt, 89, who served in the Navy in World War II and the Korean War. (DIRK SHADD | Times)
Trying to correct his name on some letters of appreciation got Jim Shanyfelt the Korean War medals that he had given up on ever seeing.
“I’d gotten some medals for World War II,” said Shanyfelt, 89, of Clearwater. “But I never got my medals for Korea.”
He was one of several veterans honored years after their service during an awards presentation Friday at the Armed Forces History Museum in Largo.
Shanyfelt was in the Navy, and like a lot of service members from that era, he served in both wars. Over the years, he tried to obtain his Korean War medals but was put off by all the red tape.
That began to change two years ago when he took part in an Honor Flight to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“They misspelled my name,” he said.
“Shanyfelt” was missing the “y” on the list of passengers for the flight, which takes veterans to and from the memorial for free.
Then in April, he was passing near the Clearwater office of Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly when he decided to stop in to see if the staff could correct his name on a series of appreciation letters he received in connection with the Honor Flight.
The service medals came up in the conversation.
Four months later, Jolly presented the missing medals to Shanyfelt during the ceremony Friday.
“It’s an honor to play a small role in helping these heroes receive the honors they earned,” Jolly said.
Shanyfelt served aboard Navy ships delivering troops to islands including Okinawa during World War II and to the port of Inchon during the Korean War.
Friday, he picked up more than 10 medals and ribbons, including a couple more from World War II, as well as the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal and a Combat Action Ribbon.
“Wow,” he said as he looked at the pile of long-overdue honors.
Unlike Shanyfelt, Terry Carden attended the presentation Friday to receive a medal already delivered to him. But he lost it.
Carden, now 70 and living in St. Petersburg, was a 20-year-old Marine corporal on a night patrol through a Vietnamese rice paddy “when the Viet Cong lit us up.”
“We were stacking up the wounded like logs onto the choppers,” he recalled.
A fellow Marine noticed the back of Carden’s green uniform had turned red.
“With my blood,” he said, his eyes welling up.
Over his objections, he was flown out of the fight by helicopter and taken to a field hospital, where Marine Gen. Lewis Walt pinned a Purple Heart medal on him. Ten days later, he was back out in the field.
“That’s where I lost my medal.”
Thanks to the efforts of his wife, Beverly, Carden received a number of medals to replace ones he had lost track of. But he never got the Purple Heart. He did receive another medal, but it was one he didn’t deserve, packed in a Purple Heart box.
He returned the medal, reached out to Jolly and received the Purple Heart on Friday.
“This is a great day,” he said.
John Gallagher was an Army specialist during Vietnam, working communications and surveillance at Camp Eagle, the home of the 101st Airborne, south of Hue.
“I would go outside the wire to make sure nobody came in,” he said.
Fast-forward to a few years ago.
“My son, Ryan, started asking questions about my service,” Gallagher said. “He looked at my service record and noticed that there were medals I didn’t receive.”
Gallagher, too, reached out to Jolly. On Friday, he received a Vietnam Service Medal and Silver Star attachment, as well as a Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon with Device.
Also attending the presentation Friday were representatives of two men who died before they could receive their medals.
Donna Norman came to pick up medals for her late father, Calvin C. Norman, who served as a Navy lieutenant in both World War II and Korea.
And Jackie Braga of Dunedin received medals on behalf of her late husband, Robin Robbins, who served as a Petty Officer 3rd Class in Vietnam.
“His ex-wife threw them all out,” Braga said.
- Photo 2: James Shanyfelt, a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, displays service medals presented to him Friday at the Armed Forces History Museum in Largo. (DIRK SHADD | Times)
- Photo 3: James Shanyfelt, a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, displays service medals presented to him Friday at the Armed Forces History Museum in Largo. (DIRK SHADD | Times)
- Photo 4: Service medals are on display Friday in Largo before they were presented to retired military personnel and their families. (DIRK SHADD | Times)
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