Family to receive pilot's 150 medals

He flew missions over Vietnam

Military service medals including the Purple Heart, Air Medal and numeral 135, Bronze Star, and Army Commendation Medal. (Lisa Poole/Associated Press)

Helen Tilgner remembers seeing a scar on her father's left knee when she was 7, and realizing he had won a Purple Heart for being shot during combat in Vietnam.

But she had no idea that her father had won medals for more than 100 military honors until this year - 26 years after he died when his helicopter crashed in Malaysia while he was flying for a private medical rescue company.

Today, Senator John F. Kerry will present Tilgner and her two sons - both in the Army - with the awards won by her father, Chief Warrant Officer Armit Tilgner, three decades plus after he flew missions in Vietnam.

"I feel like it is recognition that he should have had long ago, to be remembered with honor, and it's a legacy I get to pass down to my sons so they are better aware of who he really was," Tilgner said.

Armit Tilgner was an instructor pilot with the First Aviation Brigade's 128th Assault Helicopter Company. He served six tours in Vietnam, winning numerous awards, including four citations for the Bronze Star, five for the Army Commendation Medal, three for the Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal, two for the Valorous Unit Award, and the Air Medal for 135 missions.

But he never talked about his military honors, so his family only knew about the Purple Heart.

Tilgner retired after 20 years in the Army in 1973 and went to work for a private medical helicopter company, transporting sick people from remote villages in Malaysia to hospitals. In 1982, he was killed at age 48 when his helicopter crashed during a severe thunderstorm.

Helen Tilgner, 23 at the time, remembers getting a telegram that his body had been found, but she never knew where he was buried. About five years ago, she began searching for information, and contacted Kerry, himself a decorated Vietnam War veteran. He found someone who located her father's remains and sent photos of his grave in Sarawak, Malaysia.

After that, Tilgner discovered her father's discharge papers in her mother's house. On them, she saw a list of codes, and asked an old Army buddy of her father's to translate them for her. The codes all stood for medals her father had won.

"Once I got them decoded, I started flipping out," she said. "I had no idea."

She contacted Kerry again, this time to see if he could have her father's medals replaced. No one in her family knew where her father's original medals were. Kerry said he was stunned by the number of awards Tilgner received and touched by the story of the two grandsons who have followed his footsteps.

Sergeant Jason Kendrick, 28, has done two tours in Iraq and is to fly out for his third next month. Specialist Jerrod Kendrick, 27, returned in May from a 13-month tour in Afghanistan.