Winona's Gillman receives Quilt of Valor

An old C-130 mail plane dropped him off at Can Tho, Vietnam, and they took him to the base at Ben Thuy – an Army combat engineer assigned to join a company maintaining a 200-truck supply unit for the Mekong Delta.

David Gillman of Winona did this for two tours of duty, 1969-71, repairing shot-up vehicles, steam-cleaning off blood and stenciling a new star on the door, if needed, before sending the 2.5-ton flatbeds back outside the fence.

From Adams, Ore., near Pendleton, some of Gillman's unit's east coast soldiers thought they still fought Indians out there.

In Vietnam, it was the Viet Cong,...