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After reading my “Health” post, a friend said, “You need to explain about your disability.” My disability is related to my Army service but not to Vietnam. I survived Vietnam with no permanent physical injuries. I was serving in Fort Sill Oklahoma in a Pershing Missile unit when it happened. We were doing some training on an obstacle course. Here is what I remember – I know it was my third time through the course and then the next thing I remember was waking up in the base hospital. There were a couple of doctors poking needles in my feet and asking if I could feel them. I couldn’t. However, it didn’t take long before my sense of feeling returned. I was told I had suffered a “severe spinal bruise.” Later, I was told by my friends that I had fallen off an obstacle we labeled “the backbreaker” because of its structure. I don’t remember the structure of the obstacle all that well, but the idea was to go across the top of it by going over and under logs. There were several crisscross support members and if you fell, you would likely break your back on them. My friends told me I fell off the top and bounced off the supports and ended up on the ground out cold. One of the base ambulances arrived and they put me on a backboard and carted me off. It was shortly after this happened that I got orders for Vietnam. About six months later, they broke up the entire unit I was in and sent them all to Vietnam. I will explain more about my disability in another post. The story continues many years later. Any questions?
One Response
Interesting I knew it was “in the war” the injury but not the full detail, that sounds horrible.