Vietnam Service – United States Marine Corps
“I know that I have been very fortunate. I do not have the mental and emotional problems that some of our men have to this day. Physically, I am as healthy as a 70-year-old man can be.
“I came close to being killed beau coup many times. There were so many times that it was only a matter of a few feet or a few inches. Once I was climbing out of my foxhole when my buddy pulled himself out by pushing my shoulder down. He got it and I didn’t have a scratch.
“Rarely do I think of my time in Vietnam. I had married between boot camp and my specialty training. By the time, my tour was over, I had a son that I had never seen. I was coming home to a new world of having a family and having new responsibilities. But they were responsibilities that I was glad to accept.”