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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Medals in Memory
By Shane FarverSunset veteran's quest succeeds in recognition for two fallen comrades
SUNSET -- Nearly 39 years after two friends saved his life by giving up theirs, Sgt. 1st Class Lee Sanchez, of Sunset, was able to restore to their families some lost recognition.
On Aug. 27, 1968, Sanchez, Spc. 4th Class Rudolph Renteria and Sgt. Adolfo Moreno were setting up an ambush in Vietnam's Binh Duong Province when Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army soldiers spotted them.
A firefight ensued andall the enemy were killed withthe exception of one. While mortally wounded, he began lobbing grenades at them, Sanchez said.
"This particular one went over my head," he said. "I didn't see it."
Moreno and Renteria did see it and went to grab it and throw it away from the other American soldiers.
"When they were struggling for it, it went off and killed them both," he said.
Sanchez was thrown into a tree by the blast and wounded.
The medals both soldiers were awarded for their actions in Vietnam were later lost. A thief burglarized the house of Renteria's widow and took her hope chest with the medals in it. Moreno's medals were lost in a house fire.
Sanchez worked with Sen. Bob Bennett's office to make sure family of his late friends received replacement medals.
On Saturday, family members received those medals from Bennett and Maj. Gen. Peter S. Cooke at the Army's 96th Regional Readiness Command.
"These two soldiers offered the greatest sacrifice on that August day in 1968, and it is entirely appropriate that we recognize them in this way," Bennett said in a written statement from his office.
Receiving the medals will help her family heal, Raquel Renteria, niece of Rudolph Renteria, said.
She traveled from her home in Las Vegas to receive her uncle's medals.
"It was very special," she said. "It was nice because one of the biggest things you want for your family that passed away is for them to not be forgotten."
Moreno's 92-year-old father, Felix, and nephew Israel Cortez received his medals.
Moreno was also never awarded his Purple Heart. Family received it Saturday as well.
"He was more like a brother to me than anything else," Cortez said of his uncle.
Sanchez said he searched for about a decade before he found Raquel Renteria and Cortez. He said he first met with them last fall.
Sanchez has grown extremely close to Cortez. So much so that he's considered family now.
"Lee has become basically our adopted uncle," Cortez said.
Raquel Renteria said she's thankful that Sanchez never gave up his search for her.
Sanchez said his quest isn't over. He plans to try to get his two friends recognized with the Congressional Medal of Honor.
"I owe them my life," he said "The least I could do is get the medal for them."
Cortez considers something else to be a higher priority than military accolades.
"If we can bring some healing to Lee, that's worth more than a medal," he said.
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