Vietnam veteran and Hudson native Ron Jablanski (pictured far r) got a hero’s welcome home in an event conducted at the Hudson Elks Lodge on Saturday, June 1. Mr. Jablanski, who now lives in Worcester MA, had enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968 and was seriously wounded in combat in Vietnam in September 1969. Due to a paperwork ‘snafu’, the Bronze Star with Valor Device that he was told he had earned was not presented to him until the ceremony on Saturday when USMC Colonel Todd Traver pinned the medal on his lapel. Mr. Jablanski spoke with great emotion of his family and the people who supported him and he even sang a little song before accepting the applause of the full house. Colonel Traver, in reading a fuller account of the citation, said that the acts for which PFC Jablanski was being recognized with the Bronze Star occurred on the night of September 13, 1969. Colonel Traver credits Mr. Jablanski with having saved many lives in that encounter. The fighting for which he received the Purple Heart was on the night of the 17th when their perimeter was breached and 13 American soldiers were killed. Photo by David Lee
