May 14, 2008 07:55 pm
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Every day starts a new story, and I’ll begin with an appeal for Korean War veterans to call Arlene Shannon at the Pendleton Library at (765) 778-7527. She is organizing a program to honor Korean War Veterans on Saturday, May 24, at 10 a.m. I will be the moderator for the program. Now all I have to do is look up the definition of moderator.
The seasons have changed for the better and I’m a little late for this story, but it’s still worth telling. This past winter wasn’t the kind of winter that one could go out and play in nor were we much snowbound. It was just a cold, wet, lousy winter and my heart went out to the various outside workers and regular carriers of good news, bad news, and junk mail. That last phrase could be used for both the newspaper and the U.S. mail carriers. When it comes to the paper I throw out the junk mail and read the news. Sue pours through the junk mail for the bargains that keep our budget afloat and reads the news as she has time. The result is that Sue has a sweeter disposition and more bang for her buck. On the mail side we have the good news (the nice letters and cards we receive), the bad news (you guessed it, bills), and the junk mail which, unfortunately, is needed to keep the post office open and the good mail coming to our homes.
In all cases this is delivered in all sorts of weather. This last winter those deliveries were usually made in a cold rain. We’ve had a great run of newspaper carriers of late and I publicly thank them for their excellent deliveries in all situations. Unfortunately, one doesn’t get to meet one’s newspaper carrier these days, unless they write a great column like Teresa Timmons, but I do know well our postal carrier, Don Hobart. My accumulated knowledge of Don consists of several single sentences collected over the years as he has passed me in the yard. I’ve watched Don trudge through deep winter snows and swelter in the dead of summer. I’ve seen him when he could barely walk from the various injuries that result from years of carrying heavy loads and trudging about.
One day I mentioned the load he was carrying and he said it was nothing compared to the weapons, ammunition and explosives he used to carry most every day in Vietnam. This, of course, led to an interview.
Sgt. Hobart served in the 506th Airmobile Regiment of the 101st Division in Vietnam. Don saw a lot of action participating in 75 combat assaults mostly climbing down ropes from the helicopters into undeveloped Landing Zones. As a demolitions expert he spent several hours blowing the dickens out of the LZ to make it acceptable for ground landings. After a day of making as much noise as possible they were told to be quiet so they wouldn’t give away their position. In one landing, the chopper started taking hits and Don was whisked away still holding onto the rope for dear life. Don was wounded several times, once on his birthday. He suffered malaria, jungle rot, heatstroke that almost killed him, and spent time on a hospital ship with a phosphorous eye injury. Don was just the right size to “volunteer” to crawl into the oft booby trapped enemy tunnels. On one pitch black night he heard something moving into the camp. It came closer and closer and then he saw it, a Bengal tiger. Don froze. His heart stopped as the tiger walked right over him and out of the camp.
For years after Don suffered the disrespect that all Vietnam vets did along with the nightmares of jungle combat. Yet he keeps on walking. Last year he was mauled by two large dogs on his route, still he keeps on walking.
We take for granted each day the newspapers and the mail, but I wonder if we would if we had walked in Don’s story.
Don McAllister is the director of the National Veteran’s Historic Archive. He can be reached at nvha01@hotmail.com and Web site www.nvharchive.org.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
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