Page 62 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

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buddy Terry bent over me, and I asked him if my “I met my current wife, Cynthia, in Seminole. I
nose was still there. He only said, ‘Oh, it’s not so was a single dad, and she was a single mom. She
bad; you’ll be back in three weeks.’ They put an IV worked at the bank across the street from the Post
in and bandaged me up. I was sent back to Chu Lai. Office. She asked me for a date, and we got married
The IV hurt, and my right eye was shut. On the way in 2001. I trained other Postmasters, and we went
back, we landed at the same place where I’d been to Morgantown, West Virginia where I also drove
shot. Bullets and shrapnel were flying everywhere. a school bus for eight years. We came back to Texas
We picked up three more guys who had been hit. and settled in Lubbock in 2014.”
“It turned out that the bullet hit my nose, took Looking back on his life, Tommy said, “I am just
a turn and came out below my right ear. I had so lucky to be alive. I try to bring joy to everyone
stitches on my nose and packing up in the roof I meet.” Tommy lived up to that motto after our
of my mouth about a yard long. The right side of interview. With a smile he said, “Now you can say
my face was swollen up. I spent three weeks and that you’ve been to the White house!
two days in a convalescent center. It turns out my
buddy Terry was right when he said I’d be back
(to my unit) in three weeks! I consider myself a
very lucky guy to survive getting shot in the face.”
Unfortunately, Tommy was not so lucky in love
that fateful day. “I received a ‘dear john’ letter the
day I was shot.”

Tommy left Vietnam in August 1970. “I stayed
there one year. I was offered a promotion to staff
sergeant if I would extend my service. I declined.
After a 30-day leave home, I was sent to Ft. Knox,
Kentucky, where I met and married Nancy Hicks in
August 1972. We had a son but divorced in 1976. I
have three sons; one son, Christopher, served in the
Army during Desert Storm, and I have a grandson,
Caleb, who is also in the Army.
“Following in my father’s footsteps, I took the Civil
Service test to work for the Post Office. I worked as
a letter carrier in the Ft. Worth area for nine years.
I was promoted to supervisor at different locations.
I left the Postal Service for a while and worked
for a window repair place; then, I sold trucks.
I went back to the Postal Service at age 42 and
started all over as a letter carrier. I was promoted
to supervisor in Bedford, Texas, then served as the
Postmaster in Pampa, then transferred to Seminole
as a Postmaster in 1998.

62 Lubbock Senior Link