Don't Forget to Hug a Veteran Today!

Many Vietnam veterans that were wounded in combat will tell you that it was the women of the war that helped pull them through. That it was the women of the war that comforted them and made them feel special when they were most lonely and needed a caring soul.

No, I do not mean some Vietnamese girl selling her wares for a chocolate bar either! The women of war I am talking about are all heros in their own right - combat nurses!

Below is a story about Vietnam - that shows how the compassion of one combat nurse touched & saved the life of a local soldier....

From the PD --

A rocket-propelled grenade streaked from the hillside, blasting the Jeep ahead of Hank Vasil's M-113 armored personnel carrier. As a second grenade slammed into his own vehicle, Vasil brought his M-60 machine gun to bear on the enemy's position near Ban Loboy, South Vietnam.

Rounds cranked from his gun just as a third grenade hit his 300-pound gun shield, tossing it 100 feet in the air. The blast ripped into Vasil's face and upper torso. Two fellow soldiers on either side of him were killed.

Veteran's Day, 1969.

Since that day, among the flashbacks of war's horrors that Vasil, 61, of Brook Park, has lived with was a glimmer of kindness.

A glimpse of a hospital nurse's nameplate, "Rice," flashing through the mist of pain and fog of anesthesia. Then, a simple act of compassion that this former member of an Army Armored Cavalry Recon Unit never forgot. More....

Don't forget to thank & hug a veteran today! It is because of their sacrifices and the ultimate sacrifice of our fallen soldiers and their fallen brothers - that we have the freedom we do!