At 15 had enough of my family life, my mother left years before, leaving seven kids and a father playing with only 42 cards in his deck. I realized there was no future around my father.

My trip to my mother’s parents’ house in Mobile, Alabama hitch hiking down old 90, was not without great dangers. This man in his thirties picked me up; he had A look that even a 15-year-old realized wasn’t safe. He tells me he has to pick up some money from his apartment in a few minutes. Once he stopped and left, I took off running. I was back hitchhiking on 90 when he pulled up to me again and told me he was going to Mobile and that there was nothing to worry about. Darkness was upon me, and I was only as far as Ocean Springs. I got in, and he handed me a magazine of naked women. I didn’t open the magazine at all. My gut instincts realized I was in great trouble. This man was evil, and I was his victim at this moment in time, and he had no intentions of me getting away. He stops at a red light. I try to open the door, but the pull button to open the door has been removed since my last escape.

Fear runs through my body; I know I am in trouble. I noticed when we passed lights that he had the look of a lion once having its prey with no way out. I decided to jump in the back seat and escape one of those doors, but they were made not to open. He yanks his car to the side of the road and jumps into the back seat breaking all the buttons of my shirt. He didn’t realize I had fought my dad for years to protect my mother. I discovered something on the floor of the car and have to this day no idea what it was, but I cut him deeply across the face and jumped into the driver’s side of the vehicle, and got out, running down the road. I ran across 90 and started hitchhiking again. I see this car coming and I can’t say why but I knew it was him. I thought he was coming to get me again, but that wasn’t his intention; he now wanted to kill me and tried to run me over, going forward and backward. I ran into the woods and found a tree and went to sleep for the night.

Vietnam at 18

The firefight was like many before, but as in all firefights, men are killed or wounded. My assistant machine gunner was killed, and his blood was all over my machine gun ammo, causing my m-60 to jam up. I finally removed the bloody ammo. I noticed in a tree behind me an NVA soldier pulling the striker to throw a hand (chicom grenade), which landed next to my head, I picked it up without any hesitation and threw it away, and it exploded but didn’t hurt me. NVA soldiers are attacking in front of me as I load new ammo into my m-60, firing and killing two of them when another “Chicom grenade” is thrown; this time, “ I double grabbed” it; I knew when I threw it. I was going to be at least wounded, if not killed. (had these been American m67 grenades, I would have died from the first explosion)The explosion was so close that I lost all my hearing temporarily; I had quickly hidden my head behind the machine gun; the blast put the shrapnel in my helmet and bent my m-60 by catching the brunt of the explosion. My left eye had blood flowing into my face as rainwater, and my right hand I couldn’t use, and it was bleeding badly. All machine gunners carry a 45 as a side arm. I took it out with my left hand and went under the tree, trying to shoot this NVA soldier, every time I fired, he would move around the tree like a squirrel; finally, after two full magazines, I killed him. ( i was told later he was tied to the tree with no way to escape)The story has many American soldiers losing their lives, as did the enemy.

“Dying only happens once,we all live with fear, but the equallizer of fear is courage”.