BALTIMORE — A group of Purple Heart veterans received a special welcome at Camden Yards one day before National Purple Heart Day.
The Baltimore Orioles and RBR Technologies invited the veterans to watch the game from a suite while recognizing their service and sacrifice.
For Army veteran Eddie Lampkin, the celebration offered something he and many other Vietnam veterans did not receive when they first returned home.
“It’s fantastic, and it makes that, uh, welcome home that a lot of us never got,” Lampkin said. “Uh, this is what we thought it might be like, and it wasn’t. So no matter how late it is, it still, uh, gives us a warm feeling, and we thank the Orioles.”
Lampkin served in the Army for three years. He said he was wounded while conducting a patrol and preparing defensive traps for the night.
Lampkin and the other soldiers spotted what they believed was a booby trap and continued down the trail. A soldier walking ahead of him then triggered a trip wire, causing a hand grenade to explode about a foot and a half behind Lampkin.
The explosion threw him into the air. He was later evacuated and treated at a military hospital.
When asked how long his recovery took, Lampkin said the effects of his injuries remain with him.
“I’m still not recovering,” he said.
Lampkin said Purple Heart recipients share a connection because they can understand one another’s experiences and help each other through the healing process.
He also said National Purple Heart Day creates an opportunity to educate people who may not understand what the medal represents.
“What I found over the years is a lot of people don’t know what the Purple Heart is,” Lampkin said. “Having a day of national recognition allows a platform to share what we are, what we’re about, how you get a Purple Heart, how it’s an award that you don’t necessarily strive for.”
Army veteran David Kocan also attended the celebration. Kocan served for two years with the 5th Infantry Division near the demilitarized zone separating North and South Vietnam.
Kocan received two Purple Hearts during his service.
He said he received his first after a mortar struck the foxhole he shared with his medic during a mission intended to stop North Vietnamese forces from moving along a trail.
The explosion threw both men from the foxhole. Kocan said his medic was then shot in the head but survived after undergoing 18 operations.
Kocan helped carry him uphill to a medical evacuation helicopter. The two men remain in contact nearly six decades later.
“I wake them up every morning with a text message because I’m on the East Coast and I’m the first one up,” Kocan said of the men he served with. “So every morning I text five of my guys, and we’ve stayed in touch all this time.”
Kocan said Purple Heart recipients gave nearly everything while serving, second only to the men and women who did not make it home.
“We did what we thought was the best at a time during a war that was not the best of times,” he said.
Another Vietnam veteran at the event described being wounded twice. He said he suffered back and arm injuries and a concussion after a military vehicle struck a pressure-detonated mine. He later returned to the field and was wounded again by a rocket-propelled grenade.
He said spending the game with other Purple Heart recipients was meaningful.
“Feels great,” he said. “I’m happy that we could have been part of this game today and got with my patriots. We’re all patriots here.”
The veteran said he continues to help other former service members file disability claims and receive the benefits they earned.
For the veterans honored at Camden Yards, the recognition was about more than watching baseball. It was a chance to be thanked, celebrated and finally welcomed home.
