Page 60 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

Tommy White Lucky to Still Be
fter being wounded
in Vietnam, Purple
AHeart veteran Tommy
White of Lubbock knows that
he’s “lucky to still be here.”
According to most sources, over
350,000 Purple Hearts were
awarded during the Vietnam
War. However, Tommy was a
little skeptical of some that were
awarded. “I know one guy that
just had a little cut between two
of his fingers. A water buffalo
gored another guy. Both guys
received Purple Hearts.”
60 Lubbock Senior Link
Here
by Larry Williams
The Purple enlisted in the Army on July 11,
Heart is the 1968. I did eight weeks of basic
oldest U.S. training at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
military After basic, I was assigned to
decoration. Its be a Light Wheel Mechanic; my
history goes MOS (Military Occupational
back to George Specialty) was 63B.
Washington,
who awarded “After training, I was sent
a purple to Ayers Kaserne at Kirch-
heart-shaped Gons, Germany. I was in the
badge called downtown motor pool unit
the Badge of where we worked on all types
Military Merit. of Army vehicles. I went there
The Purple in January 1969 and received
Heart, as we orders for Vietnam in June.
know it today, Several of us were sent as
began with the replacements for troops who
Army’s General were finally being sent home.
Order No. 3 After my thirty-day leave, I flew
which said out of Seattle to Cam Rahn Bay,
that it was to Vietnam. I was assigned to the
“be awarded Americal 1st Armored Cavalry,
to persons… Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron. I
with wound(s) was assigned to 3rd Platoon in
which charge of ten tanks, including
necessitates three M48 (Patton) tanks and
treatment by a seven armored personnel
medical officer, carriers (M113A). They all
and which needed a lot of repair work. We
is received in action with an went all over, north from our
enemy of the United States.” home base of Chu Lai.
“We moved north to an area
Tommy was the third child called the ‘Pineapple Forest.’
born to James and Marie White. The area, shaped like a
His dad was a U.S. Post Office pineapple, was a wooded area
Letter Carrier in the Ft. Worth with rice paddies and hamlets. I
area. James “served in the carried an M-16 rifle and a Colt
Army hauling supplies for the .45 pistol and rode on a tank.
troops all over Europe.” His Our Lieutenant, Don Kingery,
two brothers also served in the asked me to go out on night
military. patrol. I went again the next
“I dropped out of high school night. One of the sergeants
in my junior year. A year later, I told me, `You’re a mechanic;