Heinrich Honors and Retrieves Vietnam Service Medals for Former Cochiti Pueblo Governor and Marine Veteran Dr. Joseph Suina
WASHINGTON– Last week, at a ceremony at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque, the Office of U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) presented former Cochiti Pueblo Governor and U.S. Marine Corps and Vietnam Veteran Dr. Joseph Suina with service medals he earned through his service.
Heinrich also spoke on the Senate Floor about Dr. Suina’s military service in the Vietnam War and about his lifetime of service in Cochiti Pueblo and as a professor at the University of New Mexico’s College of Education and Director of the Institute for American Indian Education.
Heinrich helped to retrieve the replacement service medals that Dr. Suina earned during his service in the Marines in the 1960s but lost when his house was broken into during the 1970s. The medals included the Purple Heart Medal, one of our nation’s oldest and most distinguished medals, which is awarded to U.S. service members who have been wounded or killed as the result of enemy action.
Military medals are an important way that we honor and recognize the service, accomplishments, and valor of our service members and veterans. Unfortunately, the process to replace lost or stolen medals can be unnecessarily bureaucratic and delayed. Heinrich has a Medal Retrieval Assistance program to help New Mexico veterans like Dr. Suina and their family members navigate and speed up this process.
Heinrich’s Senate Floor remarks as prepared for delivery are below:
I rise today to recognize Dr. Joseph Suina for his service to our nation.
Dr. Suina is a former Cochiti Pueblo Governor, a University of New Mexico Professor Emeritus, and a Vietnam and Marine Corps Veteran.
Recognition of Dr. Suina’s service is long overdue.
Before I speak about his military service, I want to take a moment to recognize what Dr. Suina’s decades of leadership have meant for Cochiti Pueblo, and for New Mexico as a whole.
Over the course of his life, Dr. Suina has served as a Governor for his Pueblo and Tribal Councilmember.
He has also served as the President and CEO of the Cochiti Community Development Corporation and as the Chair of the Cochiti Language Revival Committee.
But before all of that, Dr. Suina grew up in Cochiti Pueblo within the adobe walls of his grandmother’s home.
He has recounted the nights she would sing to him in their native language and tell him stories of her childhood, before electricity and cars made their way to the Pueblo.
As a young boy, he was shunned by his teachers for speaking his native language at school and experienced the stark contrast between the teachings of his grandmother and those of his non-Native teachers.
Through it all, Dr. Suina found strength in his culture—later leading him to become a champion for keeping indigenous language and culture at the center of Native American education policy.
Dr. Suina worked for decades as a professor in the University of New Mexico’s College of Education.
He directed the Institute for American Indian Education, serving Tribes across the Southwest.
His scholarship focused on how maintaining connection to tradition, culture, and language improves educational outcomes for Native students.
He also developed new methods for assessing student learning and training programs for educators who teach Native students.
Over the years, Dr. Suina has mentored countless teachers whose work continues to make a difference for New Mexico’s children – and children throughout the entire Southwest. ?
You can see the results of his work in so many communities, but especially in his home community of Cochiti Pueblo at the Keres Children’s Learning Center.
The Center is an indigenous language revitalization school that has become one of the very best early childhood and primary education centers in the entire country.
It is a living testament to Dr. Suina’s visionary leadership in education.
The legacy of Dr. Suina’s life of service to Cochiti Pueblo, to New Mexico, and to our nation will be felt for generations to come.
And today, I would also like to recognize Dr. Suina’s service to our nation as a Marine.
In the early 1960s, just three days out of high school, Dr. Suina enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
He went on to serve two tours of duty in Vietnam in 1964 and 1966.
He was wounded in his second tour and earned a Purple Heart on March 22, 1966.
He was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant.
Tomorrow, Dr. Suina’s friends and family members are gathering at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque to recognize his service to the nation.
I am honored to have helped play a role in retrieving the medals that Dr. Suina earned as a Marine and that he will receive at that gathering.
You see, back in the 1970s, Dr. Suina’s house was broken into and his service medals were stolen.
As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Suina earned the Purple Heart Medal, which is one of our nation’s oldest and most distinguished medals.
The Purple Heart is awarded to U.S. service members who have been wounded or killed as the result of enemy action.
Dr. Suina also earned the following awards:
- Combat Action Ribbon
- Marine Corps Good Combat Medal
- National Defense Service Medal
- Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
- Vietnam Service Medal
- Rifle Sharpshooters Badge
- Pistol Expert Badge.
He also earned a Gallantry Cross Medal from the Republic of Vietnam.
I was deeply honored to help retrieve these medals that recognize Dr. Suina’s incredible bravery and sacrifices.
Before I finish, I also want to commend Dr. Suina for the ways that he has raised the visibility of the physical and often invisible wounds that impact veterans with PTSD.
In recent years, Dr. Suina has spoken about how he saw these wounds in himself, in his fellow Vietnam veterans, and in veterans of his father’s generation who served in World War II.
Many of these veterans came home with trauma that went unrecognized.
I am so appreciative that Dr. Suina is working to bring a recognition and healing to himself and to his fellow veterans.
And on behalf of so many New Mexicans and Americans, I want to express just how profoundly grateful we are for Dr. Suina’s lifetime of courage and service.
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