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when I was about 19 I chose to join the
army
I got order to go to Special Forces
training to be a medic so I spent the
next better part of two years going
through medical training
Mack's RV was created in 1965 minutes
its mission was reconnaissance and to
attack the Ho Chi Minh Trail officially
we did not have a presence in Cambodia
for Laos prohibited from going in there
we had no US troops in there but that
was not true
we had amongst the highest
missing-in-action of any unit we lost a
tremendous amount of people
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we started getting hit and we had a for
the next 96 hours we had a running gun
battle we're in dire straights I was hit
on two different days a hole in your
foot or a hole in your arm as long as
you could function it was not considered
a serious injury we were outnumbered
prior at least 10 to 1 we had an
individual that was actually outside of
our perimeter that was wounded sergeant
rose went out did immediate aid on him
truck in fact and with one hand fire it
never occurred to be able to worry about
the enemy it's not my function my
function is the woman no matter what
happens you're gonna do whatever you can
to get them home
they had tried for three days to get us
out and we were we were facing a quite a
large number of people and we were down
to not much ammunition level one
helicopter came in took all all but 35
people out by the time the third ship
came in
it lost its engine there were fuel lines
broken and hydraulics broken one of us
said you know we're gonna crash the next
thing I know I'm on the ground and the
helicopter was kind of smoking it on
fire by them and so I got back up inside
the hill Cochrane started moving people
out
until we emptied it the helicopter out
on the ground
statistically speaking everybody that's
analyzed this from one end of the other
said that none of us should have made it
out I can remember looking at blue sky
when I was blowing up in the air I got
hit in the bladder canteen and I kept on
my chest things like that
how can teens get it
I don't see how anybody couldn't believe
in God if you were with us on that day
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a medic is part of the morale support
system within the unit the bond you have
with these men it's it's almost
unbreakable you have the sense that
you're part of the greater something
greater than yourself
I am a knight of Columbus because
everybody there is improving the lives
of vulnerable people in our society you
can't fix the country you can't fix the
state you can't even fix your city but
you can do something about your
neighborhood and the knights economists
provide the means to do that
I am a knight of Columbus because I am
in a group of very good and generous and
capable and energetic men who on a
weekly basis constantly improve our
little local community
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for many years the story of Mike's
heroism has gone on tell Mike we present
you with the Congressional Medal of
Honor
what I'm proud of is the fact that that
I was able to function and do my job was
in Miami and I kept faith with the men I
fought with I didn't falter I didn't
fail them
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