Las Cruces Vietnam veteran honored 50 years after service

On Memorial Day, First Lieutenant Frank Mantua can’t help but reflect on the lives lost on the battlefield beside him in Vietnam.

“It’s very difficult in retrospect,” Mantua told ABC-7. “You look about you and think about the men who died in your arms and who have died alongside you.”

Mantua enlisted in the army at only twenty-two-years old, taking very seriously the role of executing his mission overseas in Vietnam and protecting his men in combat.

“In the time, in the heat of battle, you don’t think about those things,” Mantua told ABC-7. “On the battlefield, life is indiscriminate.”

Ahead of Memorial Day Weekend, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce honored Mantua with his second Silver Star, the third-highest military combat decoration that can be awarded to a soldier.

“I thought it would never come about,” Mantua said. “I thought this second award was lost irrevocably in a crack somewhere.”

The award is especially meaningful, given his sacrifice in a war where the public’s support greatly dwindled.

“They just didn’t know,” Mantua said. “They had no idea, and some still had no idea.”

Mantua, who recently moved to Las Cruces, reminds the public that the holiday is about the men and women who risked their lives for the freedom of the United States.

“You and I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for those who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Mantua said.