Thirty-two years after his service in Vietnam, Arvada resident Jeff Birdwell has helped formed a local chapter of a group to help other veterans.

The Military Order of the Purple Heart began in 1958 and is composed of military men and women who received the Purple Heart Medal for wounds received in combat.

“Purple Heart recipients were combat-wounded and shed blood for their country,” Birdwell said. “The Military Order of the Purple Heart is a fraternal organization, and we work in the community and help other vets and their families. That’s our primary purpose.”

Birdwell was a 19-year-old infantryman securing a helicopter landing zone on Valentine’s Day in 1972 in a muggy jungle in Vietnam when two Vietcong soldiers ambushed his platoon.

Birdwell was shot seven times with bullets from an AK-47 and .32-caliber submachine gun pistol.

His military equipment stopped five of the rounds, and one round pierced his body and landed a sixteenth of an inch from his spinal cord. The other one exploded in his lower back and left 53 pieces of shrapnel that are embedded there to this day.

“If it wasn’t for the equipment I was wearing and ammo pouches on the right side of my body, the rest of those bullets would have hit me,” said Birdwell, now 61.

With both hips replaced and a major lower back surgery performed as a result of his injuries, Birdwell and fellow Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient Frank Griggs, 63, have started the fourth Colorado chapter of the national organization.

Chapter 1041, based in Arvada, has about 30 members and will receive its official charter in May.

“Our organization is really targeting in on traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder because we’ve got all these young guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Griggs said. “They may not recognize that they may need help, and by being around veterans, you can start to recognize those things.”

The nonprofit group will raise funds for two large projects: the purchase of a tolling bell for military funerals and placing a Purple Heart Memorial in the Westminster’s Armed Forces Tribute Garden.

Other plans in the works include providing funds and support to the Veterans Administration Hospital and local nursing homes, organizing a color guard and a program in conjunction with the Arvada Harvest Festival.

Birdwell added that the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War is about to take place, and many veterans of that war are already in their 60s or 70s, making it important that a younger generation of Purple Heart recipients keep the organization going.

“We want people to be proud of their Purple Heart — it’s the oldest military honor, and very prestigious,” Birdwell said. “We want our members to feel a part of an elite organization.”

Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com