Vietnam veteran awarded Silver Rose
Gerald LeBlanc of Greene was honored for injuries suffered from exposure to agent orange.
LEWISTON
Gerald LeBlanc remembers the bleak landscape left behind when American planes sprayed the Vietnamese hills, leaving the plants bare and the ground brown.
Sometimes, they’d spray the land around airstrips and the bunkers where G.I.s slept.
“I always thought it was safe,” said LeBlanc, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam. “I thought they knew what they were doing.”
That was before he’d heard of agent orange and before doctors found cancer in his body.
“If you can see bullets, you can dodge them,” said LeBlanc, now 67. He never saw the dioxin that made him sick.
And he has never been honored for his sacrifice, until now.
On Sunday, LeBlanc was awarded the Silver Rose.
It’s a medal and certificate created by a nationwide nonprofit group, which is upset that soldiers who were harmed by agent orange are unable to be awarded the U.S. military’s Purple Heart.
Traditionally, that medal has been reserved only for veterans who suffered wounds at the hands of the enemy. That is changing, though.
Recently, the Pentagon loosened the eligibility to include incidents of friendly fire.
“We’re trying to convince them to open up,” said Roger Landry, a Sanford legislator who was the first Mainer bestowed with the Silver Rose. “If it works, we’ll go away.”
Landry helped LeBlanc through the application process to receive the award. Included with the application was a description of LeBlanc’s illness.
It took a long time to develop.
During the war, the Lewiston native had worked on the machines used by soldiers to build roads and bridges. He remained in the army for more than 20 years.
After retiring from the service, he worked for a short time as a surveyor in Saudi Arabia. He finally settled back in the Lewiston area, where he spent eight years working for the postal service.
LeBlanc suffered prostate cancer a few years ago. He’s clean of it now. But, he’s weakened and there are other suspicious problems, such as unexplained rashes. He is also diabetic.
“The doctors at Togas (VA Medical Center) were wonderful,” LeBlanc said. “They caught the cancer in time.”
But other former soldiers have been less lucky, he said.
“A lot of guys have died before they could receive their medals,” LeBlanc said. Others are waiting for the Purple Hearts they believe will come, as long as the Silver Rose keeps getting talked about and pressure continues on the Pentagon.
“I’m doing this for all of us,” LeBlanc said.
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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