KALAMAZOO (WKZO) — Congressman Fred Upton and several other local elected officials joined a ceremony to award U.S. Navy Veteran Dennis Jokela his military medals on Friday.
Jokela, who is now 60, served as a second-class petty officer and flight deck aviation electrician on the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier, during the Vietnam evacuation.
His unit was also involved with the recovery of the U.S. merchant ship SS Mayaguez and its 39 crew members, who were seized by Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia in May 1975.
Jokela received the Vietnam Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for the Mayaguez Operation, Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon with one Bronze Star, National Defense Service Medal, Navy Good Conduct Medal and the U.S. Navy Honorable Discharge Button for his service.
Jokela, who is a reserve officer with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department and host of a Christian public television show, said he didn’t have the warmest welcome when he came home from his service.
Like so many servicemen from that era, if you didn’t ask for your service medals as you were being discharged, you never received them. That was remedied this week, at least for Jokela.
