I am back with more interviews from people who have served. I will be sharing from time to time interviews with veterans who have been in the trenches.
First, I want to share to statistics about African-American veterans who have served our country in the military.
There are 2.1 million black veterans nationwide.
There are 30.2 percent of active-duty enlisted women who are African-American
17.1 percent of active duty men are African American.
20,000+Black Marine recruits who received training at Montford Point camp in North Carolina during WWII.
21 who have received the Medal of Honor during the vietnam war.
7,243 who died in the Vietnam war.
3075 who died in the Korean war.
901,896 who served during WWII
24 percent all the military sent to fight in the Persian Gulf war.
350,000 who service in WWi.
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More from the book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.”
I have many other interviews done, and many more to get to yet. One interview came quite by accident.
I decided to stop by a fast food hamburger restaurant. I walked in, got my meal and was walking to my seat when I noticed a Vietnam Veteran eating at a table. I could tell he was in Vietnam by the hat he had on.
I sat down, and continued looking at him. He looked in pain. He had a sad look on his face. He got up to throw away his left overs in the garbage. He struggled to get up. He walked with a heavy limp.
I decided to ask him to sit with me and talk. He looked like he didn’t want to have anything to do with the. Then I told him I was a veteran as well. He then decided to sit.
We had idle chat for a few minutes and then I started asking him about his military life.
I asked him where he served, and he said he was a Marine on a ship off the coast of Vietnam. It was a helicopter offshore base, and their mission was to take supplies into the troops, bring wounded troops out, and even sent supplies to the villages that were starving.
I then asked him what was the worst moment he had in the military, and he said one day his best friend was taking off in a helicopter with a co-pilot, and the engine died and the helicopter dropped into the ocean. It sunk fast and his friend was dead. He said they never even attempted to retrieve the bodies because the water was too deep. He was fighting tears at that time.
He went on to say his second worst moments is when he got of the plane coming home, and the people spit on him and called him a murderer as he walked through the terminal.
That was the end of the interview because he just couldn’t talk anymore. We shook hands and I thanked him for his service. I watched him out the window as he hobbled to the hotel by the restaurant.
This is just one of many stories that will be in the book.
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