Retired NCO returns Soldier's Medal to former member of PSYOPS battalion

By Justin Creech, Belvoir EagleApril 12, 2013

Returned Medal
Dale Walters, Air Traffic Control Maintenance manager, right, returns the Soldiers Medal to former Spc. Christopher J. Burnette on Saturday in Burnette's apartment in South Charlotte, N.C. Burnette was awarded the medal for pulling an elderly gentlem... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Dale Walters, Fort Belvoir Air Traffic Control Maintenance manager, stood in the living room of an apartment in South Charlotte, N.C. on Saturday afternoon. Walters was returning the Soldier's Medal former Spc. Christopher J. Burnette was awarded for pulling an elderly gentleman out of a burning automobile in Fayetteville, N.C. in January of 2001, while he was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. The living room is in Burnette's apartment.

It is the first time Burnette has seen the medal in over a year and a half.

"I said it's an honor to meet you and to return this medal to the rightful owner," said Walters of his words to Burnette as he handed him the medal. "He accepted it back graciously; we shook hands, took a couple of photographs, talked a bit and then went out to lunch. It was a very heart-warming, moving moment."

Burnette served in the Army from 2000-2009 and was a member of the 6th Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg in January 2001. Burnette and a friend were returning from Charlotte when they noticed a car on fire on the side of the road.

Burnette broke the back window of the vehicle, pulling the driver out to safety before the car exploded.

He is grateful to have his medal back after not having it for so long.

"I honestly gave up on ever finding it," said Burnette. "I kind of let it go and adopted a win some lose some attitude."

The story of how Walters found Burnette's medal is almost as remarkable as Burnette's actions to earn the award.

Walters and his wife were in an antique store in Fayetteville six months ago when he saw the medal in a picture frame leaning against a wall. Walters knew immediately it shouldn't be in an antique store and decided to find out how it got there.

"It's the third highest award for heroism," Walters said. "Being a retired Soldier and having served during the Gulf War, I felt like I needed to find out why this award was in an antique store."

Walters located the store owner and asked him if he knew what the medal was and its significance. The owner replied, no, so Walters informed him how important the medal is and that it should be with its recipient and not in an antique store.

After the owner refused to let Walters know the vendor he got the medal from, Walters told him he would buy the medal himself in order to get it out of the store.

"I said to him, 'Look, you can either donate the medal to me so I can get it back to the rightful owner, or I'll just buy it from you,'" Walters said. "Of course, he said he couldn't donate it to me so we negotiated a price and I bought it from him."

The medal came with information on why the medal was awarded and who it was awarded to.

Walters immediately began searching for Burnette's whereabouts, but was unable to find out anything more than that Burnette is no longer on active duty.

"I couldn't find him on the Internet because he spells his last name like the French do," said Walters. "After I found out he is no longer active duty, I called the Department of Veterans Affairs, but they said 'No, don't call us again.' I understand it was because of identity theft reasons, so I appreciate their position."

Frustrated with his lack of progress in finding Burnette, Walters accepted an offer from his daughter, Mandy Walters, to help him find Burnette. A week later, Walters received a call from Mandy informing him she had found him.

"I was only able to work on it on weekends, and sometimes you get overcome by events and you put it off," said Walters. "Next thing you know, so much time has gone by and you haven't found the person. So, I am very thankful she decided to help out."

Walters immediately contacted Burnette and let him know his medal had been retrieved and that Walters wanted to get it back to him.

"Relief," said Burnette of learning his medal had been retrieved. "I figured the medal was gone forever."

Awards can be lost in many ways, said Walters. The Soldier dies and the military disposes of the award, or the Soldier is deployed and it gets lost in a storage unit. The rental payment doesn't get made and the item gets auctioned off by the storage company. Awards can also get lost in divorce settlements if the spouse is being particularly nasty about what they want in the settlement.

Unfortunately for Burnette, his medal was lost due to a spiteful divorce settlement.

Burnette said it took nearly three years to receive the medal since the situation needed to be investigated first. He was happy to receive the medal, but didn't think his actions necessarily deserved an award.

"I just figured I did what any other human being would do," said Burnette. "I wasn't really excited to have it because I honestly didn't understand the significance of the award at the time I received it."

Returning a well-deserved award to a former servicemember is satisfying, according to Walters, because lost medals are a problem he hopes this event brings awareness to.

The event also makes Walters feel like he is continuing to serve his country since he was able to help a fellow former servicemember.

"I feel that every day because of the job I do that directly affects active-duty servicemembers," said Walters. "But, in a small way, I think I helped contribute to the Army and bring awareness to this situation. It boils down to things I teach my employees and I hold true to my Family, that it's a respect thing and it's the right thing to do. He and the award deserve the respect and getting it back to him is, plain and simple, the right thing to do."

To see there are still people in the world who are selfless and want to do the right thing makes Burnette very grateful to Walters, according to Burnette.

"To see the goodness of someone who saw it, knew what it was and knew how important it would be to somebody is an awesome feeling," said Burnette. "There's nothing I can ever do to truly show my appreciation."