Page 55 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

MARINE CORPS
VIETNAM

Midland

Later, my CO sent me
to Dong Hang where
a Navy officer refused
to X-ray my back and
threw us out of his
office. I was given pain
pills, but it wasn’t
until a doctor at the
VA clinic in Amarillo
examined me years
later that I discovered
two of my vertebrae
had been severed.”
After 13 months in
Vietnam, Corp. White
returned to Camp Reservist) are still in Lubbock, and the legacy of their
Lejeune and served military service lives on. We owe a debt of gratitude to all
until May 1970, when he accepted early release from of them, including the good parents who raised them.
active duty and returned to Lubbock.

He planned to go back to work at Clark Equipment,
but the tornado two weeks earlier had torn it up. He
and his wife Pat moved to Paris, TX where they had
a son Andrew, and Donnie worked as a machinist for
Campbell’s Soup for 25 years. Pat passed away in 2012
after 37 years of marriage, and Donnie moved to Midland
to work for his nephew.
In addition to his back injury, the Marine’s eardrums
were blown out three times, and he was eventually
diagnosed with PTSD. But the veteran artilleryman says,
“I’m still proud to be a Marine.”
Donnie still lives in Midland. Auzie, Charley and Mackey
are deceased. Jackey, Sue and Lonnie (a six-year Marine

1710 E. New Jersey ART CROWE
Midland, TX 79701 O ce 432-687-5905
M-39721 Fax 432-687-5981

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