Over 45 years ago, First Lieutenant Stephen McMahon (Ret., U.S. Army) served his country with dedicated conviction and consistency. Last Friday, he finally received six medals – including the Bronze Star – in recognition for that service, thanks to his wife, Linda, and the office of Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI).

Although McMahon served for about 10 months in Vietnam as an officer within the 2nd 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, a storied regiment that dates back to World War One, he did not receive his service medals upon leaving the service because he left as part of a dependency discharge in order to care for a sick family member.

Langevin presented McMahon with the Bronze Star, a National Defense Service Medal, a Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze service stars, a Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon, an Expert Badge with Rifle Bar and a Marksman Badge with Pistol Bar as part of a small ceremony at his Warwick office on Friday afternoon.

“It’s wonderful to finally get the medals that I earned for my service in the Vietnam War,” McMahon said. “I’ve always thought about trying to obtain them from the Army, and I am glad I can finally take them home with me as a representation of the job I fulfilled.”

McMahon, a 70-year-old resident of North Scituate, spoke fondly of his experience during the war and described himself as “one of the lucky ones.”

“I was able to go through it and keep my sanity,” he said. “For us, we had to do the job. We had to get the mission done no matter what. But at the same time, do it as safely as possible and not get ourselves killed in the process. We were able to do that. Over the 10 months I was there I had close to 200 kids working for me, cycling through, and nobody died. So I'm pretty proud of that.”

McMahon worked on supply lines, re-supplying his fellow soldiers with much-needed food, water, ammunition and personal effects. He said he was working on “red” – or dangerous, possibly-booby trapped – roads all the time, throughout that 10-month stay.

“It is a tremendous honor to present these six medals to Lieutenant McMahon as a way to commemorate his service in the Vietnam War,” said Langevin who, in addition to being one of Rhode Island’s two Representatives in D.C., is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. “We can’t thank our veterans enough for their bravery and sacrifice, and I am pleased I could help facilitate the delivery of these well-deserved medals.”

Although the Bronze Star is usually awarded for some measure of distinct, heroic action, McMahon said his Bronze Star was more about his consistent work that resulted in zero deaths during his deployment.

“It was more for service than out-and-out valor,” he said. “It was for doing the job day in, day out as well as we could and as conscientiously as we could.”

After leaving the Army, McMahon spent 30 years as a history teacher for the Pawtucket school system.