When I left for Vietnam on December 28, 1967, I truly thought I had seen my last Christmas. As I hugged my wife and gave her a kiss, we both knew this might be the last time we would see each other. A pretty stressful way to start a marriage to be sure. God was on our side. I got a one week early drop in 1968 and got home on December 23, 1968. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones because I never spent a Christmas away from my family.
The military and the tour in Vietnam definitely shaped my life. As most of my friends who served wanted to give back to the country, I also was in that group. I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to help my fellow Veterans. Over the years I have helped hundreds of Veterans get signed up for VA Healthcare, get disability compensation and put them in touch with the right people to help them.
As most of you know, our home was hit by a tornado on June 20. We had over $100,000 in damages. We thank everyone who helped us do cleanup. People called everyday asking us what they could do to help us. The City of Naperville and surrounding communities were there an hour after the tornado hit to start the cleanup. That incident has made us realize what a great city Naperville is and what great people live here. Everyone was out helping neighbors even though their homes were also damaged.
I have been writing “Veterans In Touch” for 9 years. In looking back at some of the columns, I hope I was able to provide pertinent information for Veterans and their families. It always made me feel good when a Veteran or family member came up to me and thanked me for giving out the information that made it easier to deal with the Veterans Administration or some other government entity.
As we all know, good things come to an end. This will be my last column. I want to thank the editor, Stephanie Penick, for mentoring me and keeping me on the straight and narrow. Thank you to all the readers of Positively Naperville for reading my columns.
