George was injured: Aug. 1969
Shot while rescuing injured squad mate
Shot in arms, legs, back and jaw
2 months in MASH Unit
2 Months in Japan Hospital
Shipped to Virginia Hospital
Ron was able to capture his story. Read below. It is a little long but very interesting. Do not miss part 2 of the story.
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I wanted to tell you about a Vietnam veteran I know, but
don’t really know or should I say I would like to know better. His name is George Terry and he has lived
across the street from me for 13 years or so.
I met him when they first moved in but never really got to know them
very well. Him and his wife kind of kept
to themselves and my wife and I were usually running around with the kids. We always had casual conversation and would
talk occasionally while working in the yard…
We both own a couple of acres and we don’t live in a neighborhood, so
our interaction was limited. About a
year ago, he had his car stuck in his yard and I went over to help him when I
noticed his license plate. He had a
purple heart plate. I wasn’t sure how
old he was, so I asked him which war he received it from and he told me
Vietnam. This really peaked my interest
to ask a lot more questions, but I thought this was not the time or place. I asked him if we could talk more about his
experience some time and he agreed.
Over the next several months I got to know George a little
better and we talked more often. I also
asked his wife if he ever talked about the war and she encouraged me to
approach George to talk about it. She
assured me he would like to talk about it and told me to stop over some time
just to chat. When I went over one
evening, I noticed a shadow box on the wall which contained 3 purple hearts,
some pictures and a knife (more on the knife later). We talked in general about his service, where
he was stationed and what his responsibilities were as a soldier, but he did
not really open up a about his experience in Vietnam or how he was
wounded. “I was just shot”.
A few months later I set a time up to meet with George and
talk more in depth about his experience during the war. I invited Jean and Larry Gault to go with me
since they had a lot more experience dealing with veterans than I have and I
did not want to upset George in any way.
George was a little reserved at first but as we talked he became more
comfortable and began to open up. I
could tell it was very difficult. He
told us all about his experience of going off to boot camp as an 18 year old
“boy” as he put it. He had a few good
stories of boot camp and drill instructors, but then came Vietnam.
Upon his arrival in Vietnam, the airfield he landed at was
under attack as they landed. I did not
get what outfit he was with, but he is a Marine and his duty was a rifleman in
a heavy weaponry combat platoon. His
mission when he arrived was to Seek and Destroy the enemy which consisted of
many patrols ranging from 2 days to 30 days.
There were many times they were either ambushed or they would ambush the
enemy. As he put it, they were
constantly on edge. The conditions they
fought in were miserable and the grass they walked through was just crazy to
fight in. The enemy could be anywhere
behind any blade of grass and the jungle was just unforgiving. He talked about
the weaponry they would carry including machine guns, ammunition, mortars,
rockets and grenades. He spoke of the
nights they spent in the jungle sleeping under ponchos, eating MRE’s, cooking
with C4 and usually slept in pairs. It
sounded quite unpleasant and yet he spoke about it as if it was nothing. He said the days could be sunny and 100 degrees
and the next minute it was pouring down rain and then sunny and 100 degrees
again within minutes. He told us about
one night they were attacked and the guy laying right next to him was
killed. He said sometimes it was your
time to be shot or killed and sometimes it was the other guy or the guy next to
you.
After talking for a while George began to get visibly upset and
I think he knew what he was going to tell us and knew it was going to be a
tough discussion. We stopped for a
moment so he could gather himself but he said it was ok to continue. George turned 19 years old in Vietnam on
March 26th and it was now Aug. 1969 and after 9 months of being
deployed their next mission was Chu Lai.
The 101st Airborne was under heavy attack and called for support. He said the 101st never call for
support. They took George’s company and
spent 2-3 days driving up to support the 101st. When they got there they spent 2 weeks
fighting non-stop. He told us how they
circled the area and worked their way up to clear the entire area. It was a jungle when they got there, but by
the time they were done there was nothing left.
The earth had been reduced to mud and dirt. He talked about the affects of Agent Orange
and the bombardment they delivered. They
thought they had killed the enemy and George’s regiment was moving up on
foot. He was in the point platoon, the
point squad and there was only 1 guy way out in front of George (a scout). George and his platoon were going through a
rice patty when “ALL HELL BROKE LOSE”.
He watched the point guy in front of him have his legs blown off out in
the rice field. George took off running
to go get him. He was able to get to him
under fire, pick him up and get him back to the rest of the regiment and medics. When he got back George was covered in blood
which he thought was the guys blood he picked up from the field. He does not recall the guys name but said he
knows he ended up surviving. When George
gave the man to the medics the medics told George he had to go with them. George did not know he had been hit by enemy
fire and in fact was shot in the jaw, back, legs and arms. They sent for a medivac chopper to take him
and the injured man out, but the medivac was shot down twice before they could
get one in to take George and the other injured out.
George spent the next 2 months in a MASH unit and then 2
months in a Japan hospital before being shipped out to Virginia. His mouth was wired shut from Aug. to Dec.
and he was on a liquid diet for 5 months.
When George was medevac’d out of DaNang he left everything behind and
never received his personal items which were apparently lost in Vietnam. He did however carve his name into the
leather sheath of his knife which one of the guys picked up (more on the knife
later).
After George was released from the hospital and returned to
society, he was much like many of the other veterans that returned. He had a lot of trouble coping with life and
he eventually began drinking alcohol and lots of it. After many years, George went to the VA
hospital for help and was told he was “fine”.
After several more years and a couple of deaths in his family including
his Mom and sister, George went for help again and at which time he found
Christ and Christ sent him to a psychiatrist named Constance Seaward
(Spelling?). It was Constance who told
George he was really “Fucked up”. George
was drinking 10-15 cases of beer a week plus other booze and that did not count
when they would go out for drinks or dinner.
George suffered from PTSD which was no surprise, but with the help of
Christ and Constance, George began to recover.
All the time George was suffering, I was living across the
street from him and had no idea what he was going through. George hid it well. Something to note is George raised a family
during this time and worked for the US Mail.
All this time (37 years) George carried on suffering and dealing with
his issues until he got help from Christ and Constance. His wife Donna (Bless her heart) stuck with
him through all his troubles and the thick and thin of his ups and downs. How she did it is incredible and she is one
strong woman. What George went through
and continues to go through must be incredible of which I or anyone who was not
in Vietnam will never understand.
For 30 plus years George knew about the Vietnam reunion in
Washington DC, but could not bring himself to go. After George received some help, counseling
and support from Christ, George gathered the gusto to go to Washington and the
Vietnam reunion. Upon checking into the
hotel, Ron Taylor recognized George (how I have no idea) but asked George to
wait for him and told him he had something for him. Ron went back to his room and came back with
a rolled up towel and inside was George’s knife. Ron had been carrying George’s knife to
Washington for 37 years hoping to meet up with George and return his knife to
him. Today that knife is in a shadow box
on George’s living room wall along with a few pictures and 3 purple
hearts. One we know was for his injury,
one we know is from Jean Schmidt (U.S. House of Representative) and a third we
believe to be ceremonial but not sure where or when. George said there are only 2 people that know
what he did in Vietnam that day, but in my mind George deserves a lot more than
just that shadow box on the wall.
With Jean and Larry Gault participating in the Run for the
Wall the last 2 years they have really brought an awareness to me and others that
we’ve never had before about the Vietnam War and our veterans in general. They have taught me to engage with the
veterans and give them the gratitude they deserve. Jean and Larry are proof the Run for the Wall
works and is spreading the right message about Vietnam and the recognition
these veterans deserve.
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Part 2
Let's take a side step for a minute. A lady from Louisville heard about Run For The Wall. She is part of an organization of POW/MIA Flag Guard. They do this to acknowledge / recognize those men and women of Kentucky that are still MIA. They have asked us to help these veteran who have not come home. We will be carrying 2 flags for : Hugh M. Byrd, Jr of Berea and Kenneth A. Stonebreaker.
Ok back to Part 2:
Last weekend, George and his wife Donna wanted to have dinner for us as a way to say thanks for doing this. As we were sitting there, Donna asked us for a favor. She wanted us to trace a name on the wall for her. She said Hugh M Byrd. Larry just sat there with a blank face stopped in mid-chew. He asked her to repeat the name. He drove home to look for the name of the guys we were carrying the flag for... it was the SAME guy. Grew up in Berea. We could not believe it. Gives you chills.
One more part to this story. If you were around during the Vietnam war, we used to wear bracelet with the name of our men and women that were KIA or MIA. Everyone had them. So one day, someone asked Donna if she wanted to wear one. He had a big box of loaded with bracelets. You may have guessed it..... she pulled out Hugh M Byrd..... more chills.
George and Donna Terry - Purple heart and knife in the shadow box.
Larry, George, Jean and Ron
I would like to thanks George for his service and his selflessness for his fellow man. I also would like to thank Donna. Many of our Vietnam veterans got divorce when they came back if their husbands went thru what George did. She made a great comment "If he went thru all that for his country, suffering physically and mentally, I can stand by him and support him".
As we ride for the next few weeks, think about ALL the men and women that server.
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.
LETS RIDE!!!!! Leaving 7 AM tomorrow.....
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