LETTER TO EDITOR — Reader remembers Purple Heart vets
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the stories of the fine men who received the Purple Heart while protecting us during their military service. I only knew two of them, Jimmy Chandler, whom I attended school together for 10 years and Danny Weaver who’s tireless effort with others gave us the Veteran’s Memorial that will recognize past and future veterans from our community.
As some of the veteran’s described in their comments, you can never understand their experience unless you have been there. I never served in combat so I can’t feel the terror and fear that comes with this experienced. As a young kid growing up with WW1, WW2 and Korean vets telling their stories to me in the 50’s and 60’s, I was often fascinated with their humor as well as their scared s***less accounts of combat. Many of these veterans I knew as a kid were still suffering from the war and, at the time, we only knew they drank too much. Many of these men died young because their lives were never the same after their serviced to us and our country.
My respect for all military Veterans especially those who served in combat is special in my heart and mind.
I knew Jimmy Chandler before his war and after but I could never be the man he became after overcoming his near death experience in an ambush in Vietnam. He told me his story and I remember he got emotional as he told it several years after his return from Vietnam. I reminded him on a lighter memory about our whippings that Mr Davis gave us in the 7th grade for talking about something other than the math he was teaching. That 7th grader became a Hero later in his life just like the others who faced combat and I consider myself fortunate to have known some these veterans who received a Purple Heart in the service of their country.
Boobie DeLorme
Lebanon, Illinois
(formerly of Darlington, SC)
