previously spawned decals on pawn to disapear after doing a setskeletalmesh()

A projectile hits a pawn and leaves decals on it (using WorldInfo.MyDecalManager.SpawnDecal). Everything works fine.
But when I do a setskeletalmesh() on that pawn to change the pawn’s skeletal mesh, all the previously spawned decals disappear.
Could you please tell me if there is a way to fix the issue?

Keep an array of all the decals you apply to the character, and then in the function where you set the skeletal mesh, iterate through your decal array and reapply them.

Thank you very much for your suggestion.