KINGWOOD, Texas – As he sits in his remodeled home, Mike Penn remembers the moment more than four feet of water entered his house exactly one year ago.
“It really does seem like a bad dream, and we’re so glad we’re rebuilt and that it’s over,” Penn said.
Penn and his wife, J.J., were upstairs when they made the decision to spend the night. They didn’t expect their house to flood, but that all changed after the release of water from Lake Conroe.
“All the furniture we had outside gone, basically everything downstairs was gone. It was an emotional moment at times, I’ll be honest with you,” said Penn.
Also damaged in the floodwaters were Penn’s war medals. Lt. Michael Penn served in the United States Navy for 11 years. He was a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War and was shot down on his 75th combat mission over North Vietnam.
“Almost an out-of-body deal because I got hit by a missile that I didn’t see,” explained Penn. “I was dodging
some other missiles and I successfully dodged those, but they shot one from behind, it hit the tail of the airplane and it blew up, the engine quit and it was on fire.”
Penn ejected and deployed his parachute, but he was captured and became a prisoner of war at the "Hanoi Hilton," the same prison where Sen. John McCain was held.
After eight months as a prisoner of war, he was released and returned back home on March 29, 1973.
Penn received several medals for his service, including:
- The Distinguished Flying Cross
- The Bronze Star with a combat V
- Two Purple Hearts
- The Air Medal
- The Navy Cross
- Marine Corps Commendation Medal with gold star and combat V
- The Combat Action Ribbon
- A presidential Unit Citation for Gallantry
- The Prisoner of War Medal
- The National Defense Service Medal
- The Vietnam Service Medal
- An Honorable Discharge button
His brother-in-law, Ralph Messangill, a former Marine, helped them clean up the mess left behind from Hurricane Harvey, and in the debris, he found Penn’s medals.
“When I opened up the desk, I found a couple of his medals in it. That’s when I started asking questions,” said Massengill. “They had river silt all over them, they were soaked and stinking."
Messangill then came up with the idea to have them replaced.
"He said, 'Mike, I'm going to get you some new medals.’ I said ‘Ralph, if you go do that, it's going to take an act of God,’ and he said, ‘No, actually it takes an Act of Congress.'"
His brother-in-law, who also opened his home to Penn and his wife after the flood, reached out to Congressman Ted Poe.
“It would be nice doing something for him, Mike being a POW and all. As far as I’m concerned, he deserves even more,” said Messangill.
Poe’s office helped replace the medals and had a ceremony with Penn. Messangill was then able to put the medals in a shadow box and give them to Penn as a Christmas present.
“Kind of proud that I could help him out,” said Messangill.
“You did this, buddy,” said Penn to his brother-in-law as they looked at the new medals. “None of it would have happened if you didn't start the ball rolling.”
While many reflect on what happened a year ago, Penn said through all of this he’s learned a valuable lesson.
“I thought I learned some life lessons from the time I spent in a prison camp in Vietnam, but I think I learned a few more with Harvey. So many things you have are priceless and you think they’re not, but it’s the little things you miss the most,” he said.