He saved his patrol in Vietnam. The hardest fight came after he returned home
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
Arlene and Paul J. Rock stand together at the Tonalea Chapter House in Tonalea, Ariz., on Nov. 11, 2025. Paul, a Vietnam War veteran awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and his wife Arlene raised their family in the Former Bennett Freeze Area, where they persevered through decades without basic infrastructure and support.
TONALEA-RED LAKE, Ariz.
The doors stayed closed for years after Paul James Rock came home from Vietnam. When he and his wife Arlene sought housing assistance for their growing family, applications went nowhere. They lived in the Bennett Freeze Area where development had been halted for decades, and caseworkers turned them away before even reviewing their paperwork.
“All doors were closed,” Arlene Rock recalled. “They said we lived on the Navajo Reservation and we lived in the Bennett Freeze.”
The couple raised seven children in an area without running water and electricity. Medical care meant driving to Phoenix or Prescott because local clinics and hospitals could not handle Paul’s needs. Arlene worked for minimum wage, earning about $5 an hour in those early years, while Paul searched for employment that would accommodate his service-related health issues.
To read the full article, please see the Nov. 13, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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