An encounter with a Claymore mine during the Vietnam War in December 1967 left George Gentry in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but it wasn’t until last July that Gentry finally received the Army’s recognition that he deserved.

At the time of his injury, Gentry had been a rifle platoon leader for several months in the Army’s 18th Infantry Regiment and along the way, earned a record worthy of a recommendation for the Bronze Star Medal for bravery in the line of fire.

Then came the Claymore. Back in San Francisco, a physical exam determined he would be out of the Army by the end of March. He was recuperating in the Long Beach Veteran’s Administration Hospital when he received his separation papers. As for the Bronze Star, he was unsure whether the papers had been filed.

Gentry later enrolled at CSULB on his way to a master’s degree, which he eventually received from UCLA, but post-war life for disabled Vietnam veterans often remained difficult. He still remembers how explaining his injury would bring table conversation to a stop.

Maneuvering a wheelchair around the hilly Long Beach campus and its multi-story buildings also proved challenging. As a student in the early 1970s, Gentry guided then-CSULB President Stephen Horn, also seated in a wheelchair, on a tour of the campus that underlined the need for better access. Gentry was among a group of students who helped establish CSULB’s Disabled Student Services program in 1973, for which he became its first director.