Vets honored with knives
David Cole | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 7 months AGO
<p>Bonners Ferry resident Nicholas Constantinedes, right, a U.S. Army and Vietnam War veteran who received a Purple Heart, accepts a commemorative Buck knife on Saturday at the Post Falls American Legion Post 143. The knife was presented by Graham Crutchfield, left, and Chuck Buck, center, of Buck Knives.</p>
<p>A knife presented to Cheney, Wash., resident Walt Mabe, a Vietnam War veteran and retired Marine. Mabe was a Purple Heart recipient, and on Saturday he was given a commemorative Buck knife for his military service at the Post Falls American Legion Post 143. More than 60 Purple Heart recipients received knives.</p>
POST FALLS - Graham Crutchfield was at it again on Saturday.
Crutchfield, a Hayden resident and retired Marine, along with his close friend Chuck Buck, of Buck Knives, passed out more than 60 commemorative Buck knives on Saturday to Purple Heart recipients.
"It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been under fire," Crutchfield said. "But (the Purple Heart recipients) have to live the rest of their lives with whatever injuries are sustained."
The Post Falls American Legion Post 143 hall was filled with veterans of several wars and their families as the knives were presented.
"I see all these young guys going overseas and coming back injured, and we can't do enough for them," Buck said.
"It gives us another memento that we can help with our memories," said Loren Brown of Spokane, who received a knife. "The medals are OK, but things like this from your peers are much, much more meaningful."
He was in the Marine Corps when he was shot in combat in September 1968 in Tien in the mountains in South Vietnam.
"We were stuck in there for 23 days, we were ambushed and we couldn't get out," Brown said. "We took a lot of casualties."
"It's very humbling," said knife recipient Lawrence Jefferson, of Bonners Ferry, who is in the Idaho Army National Guard.
He was injured while fighting in Afghanistan.
"You ask any guy who earns a Purple Heart, he'll remember the exact day and time that he was injured," he said. "Mine was Nov. 16, 2008, at 7 o'clock in the morning."
He was in an armored vehicle when a suicide car bomber drove up and blasted his vehicle.
"It came so fast my gunner couldn't spin the gun around," he said. "I remember it was like a wall of water hitting me."
He was about a month from going home when it happened.
"That's what they say, the first 100 days and last 100 days, that's when you've got to watch out," Jefferson said.