I caught that too...
After his first year at the Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Combat Infantry Badge. A ruptured appendix cut short his tour and he returned home in 1970, a childhood ear infection was also aggravated by his service and Ridge has needed a hearing aid in his left ear since then.