Forty-four years ago, Frank Spink, a 22-year-old Army sergeant who had been drafted into the Vietnam War, spotted enemy forces approaching in the middle of the night and warned his sleeping platoon leader. Their company was quickly receiving rocket and grenade fire; Spink lost his right arm in the attack and attempted to shoot with his left hand until he passed out.

That was in June 1968, and Spink eventually returned home to Indiana following a stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he received a Purple Heart.

"It was a mission," Spink, 66, told NBC News. "I never thought a whole lot more about it."

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But that night stayed with his platoon leader and second lieutenant John McHenry, who said Spink saved soldiers' lives with his warning.

"Those few seconds that we had made all the difference," he said. "If they had gotten much closer with their firepower, we would have been toast."

McHenry hadn't really spoken about the attack that night, during which he sustained a concussion, until a few years ago. Then he began wondering if his soldiers had ever received recognition for their heroic acts.

"That’s one of the things that haunted me over the years, that the guys didn’t get recognition," McHenry said.

He decided to investigate the records at the National Archives in College Park, Md., four years ago and found an order to award Spink a Silver Star that had nearly been lost to history. McHenry believes the mistake may have been the result of an error in the number that identified Spink.

McHenry called Spink with the good news. "I couldn’t believe it," said Spink, who didn't realize his actions were worthy of the military's third highest honor. "I thought I was supposed to do that."

Earlier this year, Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., who counts Spink as a constituent, lobbied military officials to award the medal quickly. 

"Sgt. Spink did his duty bravely and heroically, and to our shame as a country, we never gave him the honor he deserved. I'm glad we were able to right this wrong and show our appreciation to him and to all of his fellow veterans," said Rokita.

Spink received the medal on Wednesday in Indianapolis at the Indiana National Guard headquarters. In a ceremony attended by many local veterans, Spink asked those who served in Vietnam to stand up and be applauded.

"This is their day also," he said. "We were there to watch out for each other."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.

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Ibrahim al Qosi, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, has been released from Guantanamo and returned to Sudan, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

In July 2010, al Qosi pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. He had been detained at Guantanamo following his capture at the Pakistani border in December 2001 and was released according to a plea agreement with the U.S.

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Al Qosi, who was born in Sudan around 1960, left in 1996 to join Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, where he provided services to bin Laden and other al-Qaida members as a driver, bodyguard and cook. In the early 1990s, he trained with jihadists and worked as an accountant for a company affiliated with Osama bin Laden, according to DOD documents released by WikiLeaks.

Al Qosi had been sentenced to a 14-year term for crimes committed between 1996 to 2001, but served two years in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors. The U.S. had agreed to return al Qosi to Sudan upon completing two years of his sentence.

"Although the United States had the legal authority to continue holding al Qosi under the [Authorization for the Use of Military Force], we coordinated with the Government of Sudan on appropriate security measures to mitigate any threat he continues to pose," said Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale in a statement to msnbc.com.

Paul Reichler, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who represented al Qosi pro bono for the past seven years, said his client will participate in a re-entry program designed by the Sudanese government for former detainees.

According to a document published by the government in 2010, nine Sudanese nationals had been returned from Guantanamo and been subject to the re-entry program. At that time, none were known to "have engaged in hostilities against the United States, its interests or its allies since their return to Sudan." 

"I’m very glad that he’s a free man," said Reichler, who added that he would have withdrawn his representation of al Qosi if at any time he seemed to be a terrorist or a threat to the U.S. According to al Qosi's court statement, he had no knowledge or or participation in the 1998 Tanzania and Kenya embassy attacks or the September 11 attacks, though he continued to provide logistical support to al-Qaida after these events.

"I believe he is a decent and honorable person whose only desire is to go home to his family, live in peace and tranquility and engage in productive labor in his family business, and he has no desire to be associated with violent movements of any kind," said Reichler.

Al Qosi arrived in the capital city of Khartoum Tuesday evening Eastern time, and according to court documents, will live with his wife, two daughters and other family members upon returning. In a letter to the Military Commission in January 2011, al Qosi's mother and father said that he would manage a family shop in the town of Atira.

One-hundred and sixty-eight detainees remain at Guantanamo. Reichler, who does not represent any other Guantanamo clients, said that many detainees might be interested in negotiating a plea agreement, but that there has been a high degree of skepticism that the U.S. would honor its word.

With al Qosi's release, Reichler said, "I suspect that there will be many who will seek plea agreements."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

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Logan Black has only one dream about his time in Iraq.

From 2006 to 2007, the former sergeant was deployed in Fallujah, sweeping for improvised explosive devices (IED), ammunition, firearms, grenades and raw bomb materials. He survived firefights and IED attacks.

What Black dreams about, though, is the yellow Labrador -- Diego -- that searched for weapons alongside him. 

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Black, 34, began training with Diego at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri when the dog was a year old. He parted with Diego upon leaving the Army in May 2007. Black has wondered about Diego's fate ever since, leaving phone messages with his unit every six months or so with updated contact information, but said he never heard back.

"I figured he had to be in Afghanistan or Iraq the majority of the time after I left," Black said. "[Diego's safety] was always a concern, but I tried to push that out of my mind. I hoped that he had a handler that kept him safe."

Related: Marine and dog bonded by war, divided by red tape

Black recently turned to a website about military working dog adoptions and posted a request for help to find Diego. He received a response from someone who said he was Diego's second handler. The dog, he said, had been sent back to the U.S. from Iraq in 2008 after another yearlong deployment. 

Determined to reunite with Diego, Black recently started a Facebook and Twitter campaign to locate and adopt the dog. On Monday, he learned that Diego, now 8, is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio as a demonstration aide, teaching other soldiers how to be handlers.

"The greatest thing about this is now I know where he is," said Black, who wants to expedite Diego's adoption.

What many veterans don't know, said Collen McGee, a spokeswoman for the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, is that a prior handler has priority in adopting his or her retiring dog if it is not first assigned to a civilian law enforcement agency.

Those unaware of the adoption process often go to great lengths to reunite with their dogs. McGee said she receives about one Congressional request a month to help a veteran handler adopt a dog. In addition to starting an online campaign, Black took the same approach and reached out to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., for assistance. Last year, 319 military working dogs from across the services were adopted; about 90 percent of dogs are adopted by their former handlers.

Technical Sergeant Joseph Null, who runs the adoption program for the 341st Training Squadron at Lackland, told msnbc.com that Diego is nearing retirement age, but in the meantime continues to perform a vital role.

"Without dogs like Diego, there would be no military working dog program," he said. "He’s a critical asset to developing future dog handlers."

Black hopes to train Diego as a service dog to help manage post-traumatic stress disorder -- specifically to help calm him down during stressful situations.

His symptoms emerged after returning home to Salt Lake City. That is when the dreams about Diego began, and when he started to notice a hyper-sensitivity to smells and sights that reminded him of Iraq.

Rip Black, Logan's father, said that much of his son's concern around his deployment was for Diego's safety. "This young man and this dog had a bond that very few of us will ever know or understand," he said.

Black worried that Diego had developed PTSD after an IED struck the back of a vehicle the pair was riding in April 2006. Diego leaped from the back seat into Black's lap and shook uncontrollably.

"After that attack, any kind of loud noises would send him into a similar state," said Black. Those noises included base artillery, gun fire and helicopters. Black would calm him down by bringing out Diego's favorite toy, a hard rubber cone. "We were always able to work through it so it never really slowed him down."

Null said that while Diego had been sensitive to loud noises and was eventually de-certified as a specialized search dog, he was never diagnosed with PTSD.

Null is helping Black through the adoption process, but said there is no timeline yet for Diego's retirement.

Black said he will continue campaigning to be reunited with his friend: "Diego has been the biggest wish I've had for a very long time."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

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A traffic jam on Mount Everest turned deadly last weekend, with fatalities being blamed on the bottleneck of climbers trying to ascend or descend the summit, reports from the mountain say.

At least four climbers died near the summit over the weekend and three others were said to be missing and feared dead, climbers told NBC News' Miguel Almaguer. But Alan Arnette, a climber who is blogging the 2012 Everest expedition season, reported that seven had died over the weekend.

The bottleneck developed after weeks of bad weather prevented climbers from summit attempts until Saturday. When the weather cleared, an estimated 150 people rushed to reach the peak, according to Almaguer.

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"When there’s a bottleneck on Everest, you have a long line of climbers that really can’t pass one another," Arnette told Almaguer on TODAY Wednesday morning. "They’re stuck, they're using up their oxygen. And as a result they get cold and potentially make bad decisions."

This deadly combination of factors has caused fatalities in the past. In 1996, a bottleneck and bad weather led to the deaths of eight climbers in one day, an infamous event that was recounted in the book "Into Thin Air."

Jonathan Kedrowski, a climber on the peak who said he passed some of the victims while descending, recounted the tragic aftermath of this season’s bottleneck to Almaguer.

One man wasn't wearing a hat or gloves. "He was kind of looking at me kind of zombie-like," Kedrowski said. "Anybody that would pass him he would reach out and try to grab you. The gentleman’s hand was frozen solid."

It is believed some of the victims died from hypothermia and brain swelling, triggered by the high altitude and a lack of oxygen.

Among the confirmed deaths are Eberhard Schaaf, 61, from Aachen, Germany, Shriya Shah, a 32-year-old Nepal-born woman living in Canada, and a Korean, Song Won-Bin. Discovery News reported that a Nepalese official said 55-year-old Chinese climber Ha Wenyi had also been found dead.

"Schaaf died at the South Summit of Sagarmatha due to altitude sickness," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Asian Trekking company that organized the expedition, referring to the Nepali name of the mountain. He said the body was lying on the mountain. 

At least two Sherpas died last month  -- one after falling into a crevasse and the other reportedly from altitude sickness, according to National Geographic magazine. More than 200 people have  died climbing Everest since 1950.

Related: 73-year-old smashes own record as oldest woman to climb Mount Everest

Eric Simonson, Himalayan program director of International Mountain Guides, told msnbc.com that his team of 11 climbers and 11 Sherpas reached the summit on Saturday. The group, he said, were toward the front of the line as they began their attempts at 8 p.m. and started reaching the summit at 4:50 a.m. The team returned safely to their camps.

He said choppers were flying to Camp 2 on Tuesday to pick up injured climbers who successfully descended. "The full story of who was hurt and who wasn’t, who dropped out and who didn’t, won’t be known for weeks," Simonson said.

Often, he said, survival comes down to whether or not climbers are realistic about their oxygen stores. "It’s like watching the needle on your gas tank. And if you know you still have to drive 200 miles and you see the gas tank is getting down to one-quarter, you’ve got to be able to do the mental math and know you’re going to stop and fill up." For Everest climbers, this might mean abandoning a summit attempt altogether if one's oxygen is too low.

The deaths mark a controversial season on Everest. On May 5, Himalayan Experience announced that it was canceling its expedition because of safety concerns. Minimal snowpack and warm temperatures, among other factors, had led to dangerous conditions, including rock fall and avalanches, the company said.

Michael Fagin, who provides forecasting services for Everest teams and runs everestweather.com from Redmond, Wash., said the spring had been very dry and windy. In the past week, winds had reached up to 80 mph; climbers on Everest prefer them under 30 mph.

Related: Climber's sky-high dreams dashed far below Everest summit

Last week, the National Geographic-North Face expedition, led by accomplished mountaineer Conrad Anker, canceled its plans to summit via the West Ridge because of icy conditions, but will still attempt to reach the peak via a different route.

Another window to summit is forecast for May 26, and Simonson expects another bottleneck as a second wave of climbers try to reach the peak.

"The bottom line is this is how it is on Mount Everest and how it has been for many years," Simonson said. "When the weather gets good, people want to summit."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

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Updated May 23, 8:40 a.m. ET -- Four climbers died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest last weekend.

Three other climbers are said to be missing and feared dead, according to NBC News' Miguel Almaguer. 

Eberhard Schaaf, 61, from Aachen, Germany, who was climbing with the Eco Everest Expedition to remove decades-old garbage from the mountain, died on Saturday along the normal Southeast Ridge Route on the 29,035-foot peak.

Shriya Shah, a 32-year-old Nepal-born woman living in Canada, and a Korean, Song Won-Bin, also died while climbing down from the summit at the weekend, Tourism Ministry official Gyanendra Shrestha said.

"Schaaf died at the South Summit of Sagarmatha due to altitude sickness," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Asian Trekking company that organized the expedition, referring to the Nepali name of the mountain. South Summit is about 28,697 feet high.

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He said the body was lying on the mountain and that Schaaf's family as well as the German Embassy in Nepal had been informed.

 

"If the family wants the body to be brought down we will try, but it is very difficult to do so from that altitude," Sherpa said.

Over the weekend, a 73-year-old Japanese woman improved her own record and climbed the peak for a second time at the weekend becoming the world's oldest woman to scale the giant peak.

Related: 73-year-old smashes own record as oldest woman to climb Mount Everest

Two Sherpas have died so far this season -- one after falling into a crevasse and the other reportedly from altitude sickness, according to National Geographic magazine.  At least 236 people have died climbing Everest since 1950.

The deaths mark an already controversial season on Everest. On May 5, Himalayan Experience announced that it was canceling its expedition because of safety concerns. Minimal snowpack and warm temperatures, among other factors, had led to dangerous conditions, including rock fall and avalanches, the company said.

Michael Fagin, who provides forecasting services for Everest teams and runs everestweather.com from Redmond, Wash., said the spring had been very dry and windy. In the past week, winds had reached up to 80 mph; climbers on Everest prefer them under 30 mph.

Eric Simonson, Himalayan program director of International Mountain Guides, told msnbc.com last week that to cancel an Everest expedition so early was "quite unprecedented," but added it is unreasonable to expect every team to agree on how to handle difficult conditions.

"They’re betting on there being a problem and all the other expeditions that have stayed are betting on our ability to mitigate that problem. I don’t think it has to reflect poorly on anyone."

Related: Climber's sky-high dreams dashed far below Everest summit

Last week, the National Geographic-North Face expedition, led by accomplished mountaineer Conrad Anker, canceled its plans to summit via the West Ridge due to icy conditions, but will still attempt to reach the peak via a different route.

About 300 climbers remain on the mountain at different camps waiting for a window of good weather to try to climb the peak before the onset of annual monsoon rains next month, which effectively ends the climbing season in the Himalayas.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

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