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Canfield veteran says receiving his Infantryman Badge brings honor to others
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
William Rutledge, an Army infantryman from Canfield who served in the Vietnam War, received his Combat Infantryman Badge at the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission office.
Rutledge, who works at Diane Sauer Chevrolet in Warren, said he was like many Vietnam-era veterans who put his papers in a box when he returned from Vietnam and didn’t worry about medals or badges.
“I left Vietnam on Jan. 28, 1970. We came home to a nation divided,” he said during the Monday ceremony.
“The vocal part of society literally and figuratively spit on us and burned our flag. The other part of the nation was silent,” he said.
“As a result of not wanting to deal with the chaos, I, and so many other soldiers, took that year of our lives, all its paperwork, put it in a box, closed it up and tried to forget about it,” he said.
“After 41 years of trying to forget, I realized I was forgetting. And no way was it right to forget the men I was with and especially the ones that did not come home.
“So I opened Pandora’s Box and began to look through what little I had saved,” Rutledge said. “It wasn’t long before I realized there was no mention of my Combat Infantry Badge on my DD214, an award I knew I had earned more times than I can remember. It is the badge of honor for all infantryman.”
Rutledge met Herm Breuer, director of the Trumbull VSC, about five years ago and asked Breuer if Breuer could help with getting the badge, Rutledge said.
When Breuer and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, got the badge for him, Breuer asked if Rutledge would allow Breuer to have a presentation ceremony.
“My first impression was to say no, but then I thought about it,” Rutledge said. “I realized what better way to honor my fellow Black Horse soldiers that also earned this award but gave their lives on the battlefield and were denied the opportunity to have this presentation.”
Breuer explained the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment had a patch that is a black horse, so they were known as the Black Horse regiment.
Rutledge said he is one of nine members of his family in four generations to represent his family in the Armed Forces.
Because military awards involve a federal agency, a soldier can go to any county’s veterans service commission, even in another state, to get help in securing them, Breuer said.