STEVEN SALA – THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

Steven Sala: Purple Heart Recipient

The purple heart medal is one of the most honorable medals one can receive when serving in the military and Steven Sala was one of those men. He was one of the many soldiers who fought as a rifleman in the Vietnam War during the Tet Offensive from 1968 until he was wounded in action eight months later in January of 1969. During his time serving, Sala experienced the reality of war and to this day, he hasn’t forgotten.

Steven Sala, a native Oregonian born in 1948, began his life in Northeast Portland where he grew up with his mother and two older brothers. He attended Benson Tech High School, an all-boys school at the time and graduated in 1966. Once finishing high school, he entered his name in the draft, with no other thought or plan. My thoughts at the time to go into the service and get out as quick as I could and go on with my life,” he said. “So, I chose to let them draft me and a year and a half out, I was drafted.”

At just 19 years old, Sala was inducted into the military on March 27th of 1968 at Fort Lewis, Washington. When he entered the draft, he knew that after training he was going to be fighting on the ground in Vietnam. “Almost everybody that got drafted with me went into infantry except for one person,” he said. “That’s what we got when we signed up, we didn’t have a choice.” Three short months after training, Sala was shipped to Vietnam.

Being an infantry soldier in the Vietnam War, Sala’s endeavors were nothing short of difficult. “We patrolled our base, LZ (landing zone) Cork that could only be reached by helicopter,” he said. “Our mission was to guard our base and make contact with the North Vietnam Army soldiers.”

On the night of January 21st, 1969, at 11:30 P.M., contact was made, and Sala’s life was never the same. “During my company’s rotation at my station, the NVA’s threw an RPG close to my area,” he said. “We were the unfortunate ones.” As a result of the attack, he received fragmentation wounds to both his legs and his back and suffered artery damage and was immediately airlifted to a field hospital. “It seemed like forever that we waited,” he said. “It only took about an hour though until it was safe for the choppers to get me and my buddies out of there.”

It was right then and there in the field hospital that he was given his purple heart medal. From the field hospital he went to two different hospitals: Camron Bay, Vietnam for two weeks and the Army Hospital in Japan for around on month. Once he was well enough, Sala went home. Though his outlook on life changed indefinitely.

When he returned in March 1970, almost two years to the date of his military induction, Sala married his high school sweetheart, Judith, and went on to have two daughters, Michelle and Sarah. This year, he and his wife are celebrating 51 years of marriage in October.