Lynn Mattocks, a cowboy if there ever was one, sits at a dinner table with friends and family without the slightest bit of ego, despite a lifetime of accomplishments and experiences to be proud of.
Now after 40 years, he has one more symbol to prove it—his second purple heart. What took so long? An “administrative snafu,” explains Lynn, as he conveys his heroic story.
Stationed in Hue City, Vietnam, Mattocks was in the Marine Corps Counter Intelligence, though he didn’t wear the Marine Corps uniform due to the covert nature of his assignment. Lynn served through 24 years of service and three tours of Vietnam, and was employed as a covert intelligence gatherer. He officially retired in 1979.
So what happened? “Got hit in the left wrist by the tailfin of a rocket,” he recalls. “The medic quickly bandaged it up.”
He’s able to recall the details of the story as if it happened just moments ago. “Later that day we were under heavy mortar fire. [A shell came down and exploded nearby.] My arms were covered in shrapnel. I was heli’d out, moved to hospital in the 101st airborne field… I was on another operation a week later.”
Mattocks suffered physically, and he carried a heavy burden while on a mission in a foreign land. For a brief time he was able to revisit his home. “Returned to the states in ’69, and was awarded my purple heart for ‘wounds received’ on 16, September, 1968. Received the certificate in ’69. But the award transmittal letter actually had wound, singular.”
How did this affect Mattocks at the time? “The wounds were wake up calls. I have a strong faith in God, and I know he was by my side. I wouldn’t be here today without him.” A man of character and spiritual inclination, Mattocks believes that the Almighty watched over him while on the battlefield, and is grateful for all that he’s been given.
“So 40 years go by… When I went to the veterans’ facility for financial assistance they said they had to pull all my records to see if what I claimed was factual. So they did an investigation in ’06 that went all the way back,” he says “No B.S. Everything in my life is recorded. I have 20 combat operations. All front line combat.” Lynn only went in for financial assistance, so after the investigation began, “I never gave it much more [thought] of it.”
