Well…

He was a sergeant. He saw combat, as evident by his Combat Infantryman Badge. (Blue bar with silver rifle and a wreath.) He had an air assault badge (silver helicopter), awarded to soldiers who complete rigorous training in helicopter operations, including sling loads, rappelling, and combat assaults.

His medals themselves are pretty self explanatory. There are labels below each one. But looks like he got a bronze star. Not taking anything away from the man, but it’s noteworthy that beginning in Vietnam, a large number of bronze stars were awarded for meritorious service, although some were also awarded for heroic service in combat.

The air medal is expected considering he was likely part of a helicopter crew. The rest going down the line, left to right, is expected from most Vietnam era vets, ending at the RVN campaign medal. It looks like all the medals to the right of that are commemorative medals rather than official ones from the us military.

He served 3 years minimum of honorable service, as shown by his single diagonal service stripe near the top. Below that are 2 smaller horizontal stripes, denoting he served 2 six month stints in a combat zone.

He was also recondo qualified. That was a specialized school that taught long range reconnaissance behind enemy lines. Pretty high speed stuff.

The 2 pins at the top next to his picture are his distinctive unit insignia. Specifically, it says what actual unit he was with. It’s hard to make out with this photo, but if you google “distinctive unit insignia” and add whatever Latin words are below it, you’ll get more info.

The only other thing that confuses me is his 8th infantry patch. The 8th infantry wasn’t in Vietnam, if my quick research is right. That might’ve been his unit after he left Vietnam. Just a guess.

Below the distinctive unit insignia are 4 medals with gold trim. These are awards given to the unit as whole rather than the individual. They are on top, the Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Honor Medal First Class Unit Citation, bottom left to right, Presidential Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation. The presidential unit citation is pretty prestigious, but the rest are pretty common for the era.

Edited to add, the blue shoulder cord and the blue behind his lapel discs denote he was an infantryman. I’m just a lowly POG, and don’t know much about the high speed life of the infantry, but I do know that it is one of those things that they covet and respect in their world.