<p>Specialist 4th Class, Walter Eugene Womack Third Army, 69th Engineer Battalion, Company C, Second Platoon </p><p>Walter was drafted and inducted into the Army on the May 6th 1966. He attended Boot camp at Fort Bliss Texas, and ten weeks later he was assigned MOS Carpenter Training, and assigned to the 69th Engineer Battalion, with the Fourth Army at Fort Hood Texas. Several months later the entire Battalion traveled by train to Oakland Army Terminal, where two Army Transport Ships took the Battalion via USS Geiger and the USS Polk to Vietnam where his Battalion joined the Third Army. </p><p>On the 12th day of February in 1968, during the Tet Offensive, Walter was deployed to work as a linesman in Can Tho Vietnam. He was in his hooch near the heliport when his position came under mortar attack. The mortar attack was a long one and Walter ran for the cover of a nearby Bunker with two others, Perez and Evens. As they entered the bunker a mortar took out the side of the bunker and all three men were wounded. A large piece of shrapnel had lodged into the back of Walter’s flak jacket, and had he not been wearing his flak jacket that day he may not have made it out alive. </p><p>Walter was treated at the Army Field Hospital where the doctors removed 27 pieces of shrapnel from his knee, and posterior side. Walter was patched up and sent back to his unit and several months later he was returned to the States. In September of 1968 he began working at the Whittier Post Office while on inactive military duty. It was at this time that he learned that he had been recommended to receive the Purple Heart. Walter completed his military service on May 10, 1972 still working at Whittier Post Office as a Mail Carrier. Walter spent many years delivering mail to the citizens of Whittier until he was promoted to the Maintenance Craft as a Carpenter and thereafter promoted to Area Maintenance Specialist. Walter retired from the Postal Service on March 28, 2003. </p>