Vietnam Vet:Rev. Tim Lee will return to the place he lost his legs

Wounded Garland evangelist hopes other vets find healing through visit to Vietnam

12:00 AM CDT on Monday, October 20, 2008
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
eaasen@dallasnews.com

Later this week, the Rev. Tim Lee will return to the place he lost his legs.

To a place that should conjure up bitter memories, a place you'd think he'd want to forget.

But it was 37 years ago that Mr. Lee stepped on that land mine in Vietnam – enough time, he said, to have healed not only physically but also spiritually.

His faith won't let him be bitter.

"If I could find the man who set the land mine, I'd tell him I love him," he said.

Mr. Lee, 58, a Garland-based evangelist, will lead a handful of Vietnam veterans from across the U.S. back to where their lives changed forever.

He hopes the journey will help veterans who are still angry and resentful to heal and forgive.

"If they go over there, they can have this victory in their life," he said.

This from a man who has only three inches remaining on his right leg, 11 on his left.

But as Mr. Lee sees it, he's fortunate to be alive.

"If I had stepped on that mine just right, it would have blown me up into a thousand different pieces," he said. "I probably should have died."

In March 1971, Cpl. Lee led his fellow Marines down a road in Quang Nam province, looking for land mines.
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