Vietnam Veteran Went Back To Find Buddy, Found Forgiveness

Veteran returns to Vietnam in search for soldier left behind

Cape Cod Times
Adam Lucente
August 15, 2017

Michael Cunningham says loss has weighed on him for 49 years.

HARWICH — An expended M16 round, bomb fragments and helicopter scraps sit in Michael Cunningham’s Harwich home. They constitute small pieces of his memories fighting in Vietnam — memories that are with him today.

Cunningham, 67, served as a rifleman in the Army’s 1st Battalion, 46th Regiment, 198th Light Infantry Brigade in 1968 during the Vietnam War. On July 29 of that year, his unit was on a mission in the Que Son Valley when a helicopter arrived with supplies. Wanting to be “first in the chow line,” he went up the hill so he could unload the helicopter and get some hot food.

What happened next would haunt him for decades.

“The enemy planted a 500-pound bomb on the hill,” said Cunningham, and the bomb exploded. “It brought down the chopper and buried alive a whole bunch of guys.”

Three men were killed and a dozen wounded in the explosion, according to Cunningham. But 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Jerry Auxier, of West Virginia, was unaccounted for.

“We looked all night long. The colonel ordered that we had to leave someone behind. It’s not the most pleasant thing,” he said. “It’s been on my mind the past 49 years.”

Two men among the witnesses were in the militia responsible for the bomb, including the man who detonated it. Cunningham walked right up to them. He gave the man who set off the bomb his 198th Light Infantry Brigade hat. The man put it on and gave Cunningham his hat. 

“They thought I was gonna punch the guy, but it was the total opposite. He was taken advantage of just like me,” Cunningham said. “There were no hard feelings. And I could see in his eyes he felt the same.”read more here

Community and Home Depot Foundation Rebuild Old House for Veterans

Shabby McDonough building to become place ‘where veterans can feel safe’

Henry Herald

Asia Ashley

August 15, 2017

McDONOUGH— A formerly vacant 115-year-old building will soon be transformed into a safe resource hub for local veterans.

Veterans Support Group, a McDonough nonprofit that provides free assistance to military veterans, took on the 32 Jonesboro St. building through a $10-per-year lease agreement with the McDonough City Council approved in October 2015. Before the agreement, city officials were considering tearing down the building to make way for a parking lot for downtown patrons.

“This is a dream come true,” said Veterans Support Group CEO Bob Van Dunk during Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony. “If you look at what we’ve been doing for the last six years, we’ve been meeting people in pizza parlors and everything else, and the city has been gracious to give us this house for the veterans of Henry County.”

Through generous donations from local businesses — including Mercer University, which donated furniture and computers, and the Home Depot Foundation, which donated approximately $93,000 toward the project — the building will not be torn down and will be used for a much more meaningful purpose. 

“If it wasn’t for Home Depot, this place would probably be 17 parking spots,” said Van Dunk during Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony. “It’s amazing how people come together to get this house up and running. It’s fantastic.”

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Man Charged After Hit and Run Left Veteran in Road

Police make arrest in hit-and-run that left local veteran injured

KWTX News

August 15, 2017

WACO, Texas (KWTX) Bellmead police made an arrest Tuesday in a hit-and-run crash in June on an I-35 access road that left a local veteran seriously injured.

Cody William Jones, 25, was charged with failure to stop and render aid.

Boone Barott, 45, of Riesel, the vice president of the American Legion 121 Elm Mott riders group, was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle shortly after 10 p.m. on June 25 on the Interstate 35 access road next to the Texas Department of Transportation offices when an SUV whose driver was headed the wrong way hit the bike.
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Sad update

Man charged in hit-and-run that left local veteran injured found dead

Barott sustained a broken pelvis and a number of lacerations and scrapes and bruises over all his body.He was later released from a local hospital, but faces several months of rehabilitation before he’s able to get back on a motorcycle.Police located the vehicle involved in the crash in early July.“We sure didn’t want this to happen,” Barott said after learning of Jones’ death.

Community Comes Together to Save Home of Korean War Veteran

Lincoln Countians scramble to save Korean War POW’s home

Lincoln County Journal

By Megan Myers
Staff Writer
August 14, 2017

Luckily, Johnson’s plight has been attracting the attention of many in Lincoln County and abroad. Troy resident Kathi Boley is among those trying to help Johnson, whom she began referring to as “our veteran.” 

Flanked by Troy residents Kathi and Doug Boley, Korea veteran Richard Johnson shakes the hand of Albert St. Clair after the group dined together at Harry J’s Steakhouse Aug. 8. The Boleys and St. Clair have been raising money to keep Johnson’s home from being foreclosed on. Megan Myers photo.

Richard Johnson has never been the type to seek attention.

After all, that’s why the 88-year-old Korean War veteran moved to his longtime home in Winfield in the first place. After experiencing a rocky road back to civilian life, the avid nature-lover longed for the peace and quiet of the country.
And for the last 32 years, that’s just what he’s found.

But now Johnson is finding that peace interrupted. About one year ago, his lending company mysteriously increased the mortgage payments on his home from $506 a month to $860. Johnson, who lives on a fixed income, could not afford to make the larger payments. Then in June, he received a letter stating that if he did not come current on the payments, he would lose his home on Aug. 31.

But in the meantime, Boley said that coupled with attorney fees, late fees and interest, the total amount that Johnson will have to pay to stay in his house is around $8,000. So Boley started a GoFundMe account for the cause. In about one week, the account raised more than $2,500, with donations coming from individuals all across the area.Boley also began organizing a team of volunteers to help make necessary repairs and to furnish Johnson’s home with appliances.Many on the team were veterans themselves, including Sheriff John Cottle and Albert St. Clair Sr., an army veteran who runs a charity called St. Clair Hearts Foundation for homeless veterans in the Greater St. Louis area. Guy Kimler, a fellow Patriot Guard rider with Boley’s husband, Doug, donated $250.

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This Police Officer Can Do Job With One Arm

ONE ARM, NO PROBLEM: Army veteran amputee fulfills dream of becoming police officer

Idaho State Journal

By Shelbie Harris 
August 15, 2017


“No matter where you go or what you do there is going to be pros and cons to it. But it all depends on how you picture it. If you look for the bad stuff that’s all you’re going to get. If you look for the positive and the good out of it, no matter what situation you are in you’ll see it.” Carlos Lugo

Pocatello Police Department patrolman Carlos Lugo is an Army veteran who lost half of his left arm in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. But he didn’t let that stop him from becoming a police officer.

POCATELLO — As a 9-year-old living in Stockton, California, Carlos Lugo grew up in a very low-income family.

His mother, a single parent surviving on government checks to feed the mouths of himself and three younger siblings, bounced around from house to house whenever the rent was too high or the bills began to stack up. That was difficult for Lugo, but watching his mom endure constant episodes of domestic violence inflicted by the men in her life was nearly unbearable.

At the brutal height of one such attack, Lugo got a signal from his mom to run to a neighbor’s house and phone the police for help — something he said she rarely asked him to do.

That’s where Pocatello police Capt. Roger Schei first encountered Lugo.

Schei said Lugo never struggled to keep up.

“Everything that we taught he was able to do,” Schei said. “No matter what he was able to find a way. He never asked for special treatment or considerations, and he just figured out a way to get it done.”
Pocatello Police Chief Scott Marchand has similar praise for Lugo, who has now been on the police force a little less than six months.

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