Note: We're on this and it's aleady being investigated as I post this. Anyone see any glaring holes in Mr. Smiths "story"?
Vietnam War veteran gives back to Red Cross that helped him in his time of need
Posted: Monday, October 19, 2015 12:00 am
By RITA SHERROW World Scene Writer | 5 comments
For three harrowing months during the height of the Vietnam War, as he struggled to find his way through dense, dangerous jungles of Vietnam, 18-year-old Green Beret John Smith was certain he was going have to give up his life for his country.
That he didn’t is why the now 64-year-old Collinsville resident is more than willing to give his time, effort and blood to help the American Red Cross.
Smith had been dropped off to man a solitary observation post, but dense fog prevented him not only from doing the job he was supposed to do, but also meant that the helicopter that was to rescue him wasn’t coming.
“I was sitting pretty close to the Viet Cong and I knew our guys couldn’t come and get me, so I had to go to them,” said Smith, in a recent interview. “I didn’t know what direction to go since they helicoptered me in. They apparently searched for me but couldn’t find me because I had to keep moving my position. I couldn’t stay in one place too long because I would be detected.
“They taught us real good how to escape and evade so I was good at that... I was well-trained, and I was scared the whole time, but I guess fear keeps you alive.”
His parents, however, feared the worst, as the Army informed them that their son was missing in action.
Smith made his way stealthily through the jungle, trying to figure out where he was. Armed only with his weapon, a crude map he tried to draw as he went along and no way to contact anyone for help, the only thing he could do was keep moving.
The observation post where he started was roughly 10 miles from his base. But Smith’s journeys through the jungle would take him in different directions, as he went from village to village, and to Army compounds he knew would be resupplied.
“I was out there three months and they had given me up” he said. “I was 60 miles away by the time I finally made it back to the road and got a ride back to base.”
His first thought was to call his parents. Not an easy task. During this period in the Vietnam War, there was no regular overseas phone service on base and the military’s phones were off limits. He had to use a two-way radio to call the American Red Cross who got him a ride to Saigon to call his mom and dad, he said.
“My mother couldn’t believe it was me,” said Smith, who also served for a time as a sniper for the U.S. Army. “She kept saying ‘I still don’t believe it’s you’ so I had to tell her things about my childhood to convince her it was me.
“I just told my wife that’s the loneliest feeling you can have when you have to be out there by yourself, 17,000 miles from home at age 18... but I survived. And, I ate most anything, most things I don’t want to talk about.”
While he served out the rest of his 21-year military career at Fort Hood, Texas, and then in South America, he never forgot what the American Red Cross did for him.
cont;
http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/feat...tml?mode=story
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