TERRE HAUTE — Years of service paid off in double honors for a Wabash Valley soldier Saturday afternoon.
Clay County National Guardsman Paul Wetnight, now assigned to the 519th Combat Sustainment and Support Battalion, was promoted to Master Sergeant in a ceremony there, also gaining surprise recognition with the Indiana Commendation Medal.
Wetnight had been with the 138th Quartermaster Support Company earlier this year, serving in Iraq, when he was called home due to a family emergency. While home, he and his wife Kimberly took the opportunity to visit the town of Story in August. But the vacation took a surprise twist when a severe storm dropped 8 inches of water on the town. The Story Inn was flooded with more than 5 feet of water, silt, debris and small animals after a retention pond overflowed.
“We woke up and there was a stream running through the bungalow,” Wetnight recalled.
But as other guests fled the premises, Wetnight and his wife spent the night and all day Aug. 4 helping work crews haul trash and dirt from the inn. Much to the owner’s surprise, they refused his offers to compensate the family for their labor.
Col. Ivan Denton, Army National Guard, noted the selflessness of the act, considering it was not only a family vacation, but also a brief respite from an overseas tour of duty in wartime and one for which no compensation was expected.
“How does America produce such people?” Denton said, noting how uncommon the selflessness is. “It’s something spectacular for his community.”
A host of Wetnight’s family attended the applause-filled ceremonies as speakers described him as a “professional NCO,” “a soldier’s soldier” and a “make-it-happen kind of guy.”
Wetnight served 12 years active duty before his National Guard career. He served in the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991, as well as deployments to the current Middle East wars.
“You see a friend in need, you help them out,” he said of the act in Story, crediting his parents and the army for raising him that way. The day before the town’s worst flood in 13 years, he recalled that he and his wife were walking along the property, appreciating the work it took to maintain such a place. “And your heart just goes out to them,” he said of the business owners, describing how he and his wife shoveled mud out of the buildings.
Wetnight said he never expected an award. “It just seemed natural to stay and help out.”
But, as Denton said, word travels quickly within the Army family, and officers at all levels felt Wetnight’s deed should not go unrecognized.
Both soldiers noted how different this world would be if more people responded to need without a monetary motive.
“I wish more people would just help without needing to be asked,” Wetnight said.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
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