Vietnam War veteran Mike Pomeroy (right). (Fox 40)
The words don't come easy for Mike Pomeroy when he talks about his medals of valor, including a Purple Heart.
Medals that were securely hidden away in a briefcase for decades, are now gone.
On Sunday during the Oroville Dam spillway emergency, Pomeroy and his wife were evacuated from their Yuba City, California home. A thief broke in and stole the medals.
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"Hasn't been opened hardly in 50 years. They've never seen it," Pomeroy said before breaking down. "It's not something you talk about. One day, you'd be able to tell them, but... "
Veteran Mike Pomeroy (left) and wife Gaylene Pomeroy. (Fox 40)
"He wanted these medals to be given to his grandsons," Pomeroy's wife, Gaylene, said.
Pomeroy earned the medals after risking his life as an Army medic during the Vietnam War.
"The fact that someone would stoop so low to take a part of a person's life like that is just unbelievable," Gaylene said.
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On Monday, the couple’s son came back to check on his parents' house and discovered the front door wide open.
Upstairs, their bedroom was a mess.
Gaylene’s jewelry was taken, including family heirlooms.
But it’s what was tucked away in the brief case that they desperately want returned.
"Almost everything you can replace. There's things you can't. And that's what really, really gets to you," Pomeroy said.
The thieves left the certificates that accompanied those medals and a written explanation from a commander of just how Pomeroy earned his Purple Heart.
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