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....
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Thanks pal.
ReplyDeleteDarth I take your a vet. So no - Thank You!
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