Kosciusko County’s Veteran of the Month was recognized during Tuesday’s county commissioner’s meeting.
Veterans affairs officer Rich Maron introduced Morris Folk of Warsaw, who served in the Army after being drafted in December of 1969 during the Vietnam War and spent 16 months in Vietnam before returning home.
While in Vietnam, Folk said the camp he was stationed at came under a mortar attack, with one exploding several feet away. He said it was by “the grace of God” that he survived and figured it wasn’t his time to go.
Folk returned home in February 1972 with a rough welcoming to heckling and shouting from citizens, but is glad things have changed since then. Folk and his wife Cathleen have been married 47 years. His father was a World War II veteran and his uncle James served in the Korean War.
After a round of applause and the presentation of the framed certificate to Folk, he said he was very humbled for the honor.
Folk said it was probably safer where he was at in Vietnam than the south side of Chicago or South Bend. He said the only difference was that they didn’t have rockets or mortars on the south side yet.
After telling a couple of short stories, he said his mother prayed for him the whole time he was in Vietnam. “God wasn’t done with me. It was the reason I wasn’t killed. I came close,” Folk said.
