(July 12, 2006)--A 58-year-old postal worker from Indiana who was wounded in Vietnam and thought dead by his comrades is getting a Bronze Star.

Michael "Mick" Mitchell suffered a head wound from shrapnel during an attack in 1968.

His memory of the battle remains fuzzy.

Mitchell told the Bloomington (Indiana) Herald-Times that after he was wounded, another soldier put him against a tree and told him to keep shooting.

Leo Lipsie of Houston says Mitchell, armed with an M-16 rifle, held off the enemy and allowed all of the injured to be evacuated.

Mitchell returned to Bloomington after recovering.

He lost contact with his buddies until a few years ago.

Lipsie and others submitted Mitchell's name for the Bronze Star.

He'll be honored Wednesday by 1st Cavalry Division veterans in Louisville, Ky., where the annual division reunion is underway.

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