Faith in Action—Purple Heart, June 8, 2026

Tune into Faith in Action at 9 a.m., Monday, June 8 on Channel 88.1 FM, Siouxland Catholic Radio. Host Joanne Fox interviews Retired U.S. Army Col. John Mansfield, National Purple Heart Patriot Project Mission Honoree.

This program replays at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 13.

Faith in Action is brought to you by Mary's Choice, a Sioux City Pregnancy Resource Center. Previous Faith in Action programs can be found at siouxlandcatholicradio.com, on YouTube, and on several other podcasting platforms. Programming is subject to change.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello, listeners of Siouxland Catholic Radio, Channel 88.1 FM, KFHC Ponka Sioux City, and K O I A Storm Lake. We are so pleased that you are tuned in and supporting all we do here. So this is Faith in Action. I'm your host, Joanne Fox, and maybe you're listening on Monday at uh 9 a.m. or maybe you're listening on Saturday at 7 p.m. Or maybe you went right to our website, Siouxland Catholic Radio.com, and clicked on Faith in Action and listened to this show or any of our many, many wonderful shows we have. This show is also on Spotify and a number of other podcasting platforms. That's all due to the generosity of Mary's Choice, a Sioux City Pregnancy Resource Center, which is the exclusive underwriter for this show. So I am just tickled today because the individual I have in the studio with me has garnered a lot of attention from the Sioux City media. And I saw him uh interviewed on television. I read his story in the Sioux City Journal, and I thought, you know what? I think our listeners would enjoy hearing about this story as well. And so I want to welcome to the my program John Mansfield. And you're asking yourself, well, John Mansfield, why am I having John in? Well, John was a member representing the state of Iowa with the National Purple Heart Honor Mission. And I thought this is such a great honor to have. And so I'm so tickled, John, that you are taking time out of your busy schedule to come into the studio and share with our listeners your experience.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Well, thank you, Joanne. I'm glad to be here, and hopefully I can answer your questions and uh we'll have a fun time while we're talking for the audience and us.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah, well, I do a lot of softball questions. This is not 60 Minutes. We're pretty casual and laid back here. But first, John, why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Okay, well, I've born and raised in Sioux City. Uh lived pretty much all my life except for a couple times away at college and in the military. I grew up in the Greenville area. Uh my parents were divorced when I was very young. I don't, I was probably two, so I don't really remember it. So I grew up with my mom and then my uh grandparents, and I attended public school through eighth grade, and really I don't remember, but I believe when I was going into ninth grade, I decided I would like to go to Healing because I thought it was a better education, would better prepare me for the world and life in general. And I talked to my uh mom and she said, okay. So I went to Healing, and then in fact, my younger brother and younger sister followed and went to Healing also. Graduated class of 1965 at Healing, and then went off to Iowa State University with the idea to be an engineer of some kind, pledged uh sorority down there, and spent a lot of time uh not going to class and having a lot of fun and wasting time and money, which came back to haunt me later when I had to use that 1.1 grade point average to graduate. But anyway, I that's another story later in life. Then when I was after two semesters, I decided maybe I should do something else. And I ran into some friends of mine that had uh one was in the army, one was in the navy. One day I decided to go down and talk to the Army recruiter. Walked in, the guy was sitting there, and I said, Well, I'd like to think about joining the army. And he said, Well, what do you want to do? I said, I have no idea. What do you got? He said, take a test, like you always do still now. So I took the test, and I had always I'd been on and off the on rolled and had a good SAT scores and ACT and everything, so had a real good score, and he said, You can do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

And so I signed up to be an Army Security agency soldier, learn Russian for two years, and then go to Germany for two years. Well, that sounded great. And then a couple days later, or that evening, I went home and found a dinner table. We were just talking, and I said, Well, I went down and joined the army today. My mom said, You did what? I said, Yep, I'm leaving in two days. So a couple days later I headed down the road and joined the army. And after I'd been in the army another couple days, take some more tests, and they uh said, Well, you qualify to go to OCS. And having been in the Army all of two days, I didn't know what OCS was. So I said, So what is that? And basically they said, Well, you get to be a lieutenant, and that's a better position, better act you know, for you in the world. And said, You now make $78 a month. See that lieutenant? He makes $400 a month. I said, I can do that. And so thus began my application for officer candidate school, boarded background investigation, etc. etc. And I headed off to resign being a German linguist, become an infantryman in the army, and go to infantry officer OCS at Fort Benning, Georgia.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

So that started the beginning of my career.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Okay. And then you continued on in the Army.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I did.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

And where did you go from, you know, being an officer candidate school? What was the next step?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I went to six months OCS, a little over six months, graduated as second lieutenant in February 1967, was commissioned. Uh, went to tr Fort Jackson, South Carolina after that to train soldiers to be infantrymen in Vietnam, which was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. Because I then learned or relearned or maintained my skills as an infantryman, because we were training map reading, patrolling, uh, how to conduct firefights, search and destroy missions, those kinds of things. That in six months later, seven months later, uh, when I arrived in Vietnam, brought me in good stead because I was not out of practice. I could still understand map reading, compassing, and those skills that I needed as an infantryman in Vietnam.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Okay, so you get over to Vietnam and uh now we got a uh well, we call it a war, they call it at that time a conflict, but you are at war with the uh Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, well, we called it a war. Anytime somebody's shooting at you, I don't care if it's two people or two hundred. It's a war. It's a war as far as the you are personally concerned. I arrived in uh in Vietnam and in process and went up to Chulai, which was in the northern part of the of the country, Vietnam. Vietnam was divided into what they called co corps, and there were four of them. I Corps, which was Roman numeral I, for 1st Corps basically, was in the north. Then II Corps, III Corps, and IV Corps was down in the Delta area and down by Saigon. So Chulai was where our brigade headquarters were. I was assigned to the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. It was a separate unit, about 3,500 soldiers, plus or minus commanded by a colonel. And I would then assign further to Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, as a mortar platoon leader. Mortars are small indirect weapons. For most people, if you remember seeing somebody drop something in what looked like a tube, that's a mortar, and then a round goes out. Yeah. And did that for not quite two months. And then our unit got reorganized, and we went out to the Hepduk Quezon Valley area, about 80 miles north and west of Chulai. And I didn't have a job because they consolidated the four unit mortar platoons into one for the battalion. So for a couple weeks I was uh at the battalion headquarters, and then I was assigned to Alpha Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, as a rifle platoon leader, 1st platoon.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Okay. So you were seeing combat?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Very little until we moved. Okay. Mainly um small actions. We would go out on some patrols and some uh ambushes, but a fairly quiet uh introduction, which was okay with me.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Well, sure, it would be with me as well. But ultimately, you got into uh the mix.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, we um well I got assigned to Alpha Company in December, excuse me, and on January 5th, we have what what we called Vietnam was funny because it's not a like Battle of the Bulge or you know the invasion of Iojima or that kind of thing. Truth. I there are some hamburgers Hill people remember, Ted Offense, if you remember. I was there for that, but we had small activity. We had a November battle, a Thanksgiving Day battle we call it, but I was not actively involved in that. But then we had what we call January 5th through 12th battle for the valley, and it was in Hepduck Valley, and it started January 5th and ran for pretty much a week. And that was our introduction to probably a more intense form of combat.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Okay. And uh you you're a young man, literally, then, um 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

20.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

20. Okay. So uh maybe you tell the listeners what kind of toll that might have taken on you. Um how what was that like?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

I can't I don't know if I can tell you what kind of toll it took on me. I can tell you it made obviously a lasting impression because it's part of my being now and always will be. Um everybody was fairly young. Yeah. Most of the soldiers there were my age or even younger. And um it it it made us really bond and believe in one another. You know, you you've seen the show The Band of Brothers. Yes. And uh I keep in contact with a lot of the soldiers from there via email at reunion and everything else, so we call ourselves our own band of brothers. And then and truthful, it really is. Now some people I I've talked to from Vietnam have have more contact, others have never had a reunion and everything else. It was probably some of the things that we went through uh made us closer, probably, or anything else. Because you share um being being afraid, being hot, being cold, being hungry, being tired, being muddy, being wet, being dirty, um, being just being a combat infantryman is is not a not an easy job. But it's but it's really weird because later on in life I I helped write a put a book about twenty about twenty days of experience in May of '68. And towards the back of the book, I talk about Dwight Eisenhower saying a quote that said, The worst job in the world is being a lieutenant in combat.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Well, if anybody would know, it'd be Dwight Eisenhower, I would think.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

I disagreed with him. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

There was a worse job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

No, I I really disagree differently. First of all, Dwight, I never never really saw him combat until he was a general. But anyway, that's true. That's true. Because I've I know all the history. I'm really a history buff on a lot of stuff. But and and you know, it's hard to disagree with a five-star general and president of the army. But because of the soldiers I served with, and and and and the bond that we created, in my opinion, um the best job in the United States Army was being a lieutenant and serving with men in combat.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

So I really disagree with him.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Okay. All right, we'll give Eisenhower that then. And, you know, I alluded to um, you know, you were part of this um National Purple Heart Honor mission, which obviously you must have earned a Purple Heart.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

I re earned two Purple Hearts.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Could you tell the listeners a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Um, yeah, it it's it happened it didn't happen in the the Jan or the Valley battle. Uh uh, it happened later on in May. Um and it it started out, well, it's kind of, I told you, I meet my guys and we put up together a book that was published called 20 Days in May 19th, Vietnam 1968. And it goes from May 1st to May 20th, and that's what really started it. Kind of a couple days before that. April about April 27th. You have to understand we hardly ever knew what day it was. We may have known vaguely, but dates and everything else just didn't register with us at most times. Um but somewhere around April 27th, uh my replacement came in. Uh in Vietnam, they had a rotation where officers usually in the field six months, and they would have a job somewhere else, not in combat. And he came in, and so I stayed with him a couple days. We were in a fairly quiet area. We were guarding, in fact, a bridge on Route 1, which was the main highway for Vietnam. And there was a little old French Foreign Legion fort there, like uh from Beau Jest, basically. That and we we we hit hung out there, guarded the bridge, and uh it was fairly quiet, which was fine with us. Uh and so the company commander, Captain Larry Bayer, says, Well, you're gonna be the XO, you want to head back, go ahead. At this time we were further up in I Corps, probably 200 miles further north, close to the DMZ, and I got on a plane, went back to Chulai. So I was in the company head supply room on May 1st. Somebody came up and said, Hey, Lieutenant Mansfield, they need you up at the battalion headquarters. And I thought, hmm, okay, wonder why. So I r went up there and they told me that there had been a booby trap go off an A company, uh killed five people, wounded three, and most of them were from the first platoon, my old unit. And I thought, and I, of course, was fairly shaken by that. And then then we later found out more information. My um replacement Lieutenant Cruthers was killed, and four other people were killed, and three others were uh wounded. So it took till the next morning to fly everybody back, so I identified the bodies. And as the executive officer, I had to make sure administrative stuff was processed and everything, because that's part of my job. But then, so on May 2nd I was doing that, and then later on, May when that got done, uh, well, I went to the head brigade headquarters, our higher headquarters, talked to Johnny Nayrood, who is a had been a lieutenant with me, and he was now in personnel, and he said, Yep, he checked off all the boxes. I said, Okay, I'm going back out then, because our platoon probably had 29 people in it. We just lost eight. So, and the platoon sergeant, who is the guy that's right under the lieutenant, you know, you see all the shows. You got this 12-year-old lieutenant and a 50-year-old sergeant, you know, with the old gruff guy taking care of him. It was kind of not like that. But anyway, because my platoon sergeant was two years older than me. Oh so, and we we got along really great. Uh, Tim Hunt, good Catholic guy from Florida. Okay. And um, anyway, he was in Hawaii getting married on RR at the time. So I thought, I need to go back. There's really, we gotta, you know, we need we have a vacancy, I guess. And so I'm packing up my rucksack and everything, because everything we carry owned, we carried on our back in a rucksack. Yeah. And I went and got some more magazines and hand grenades and different things. And and all the other XOs, because we all lived in a little hut with cots, said, What are you doing? I said, I'm packing up to go out back. They said, What are you nuts? I said, Probably. They said, You don't have to go back. I said, Yeah, I do. So I jumped on a plane, then a helicopter, and went back out to the company. And I remember when I got off, I was gonna go up to see the CO Larry Byers again, tell him I was back, because we hadn't really told anybody. I just and somebody yelled from the platoon, they said, Hey, what are you doing back out here? And I said, Hell, somebody's gotta take excuse me. I didn't I don't know if I can say that.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

No, yeah, oh, we often say those things here on the air.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

I I said, somebody's gotta take care of you guys. So I was back, and that was June 3rd, which happens to be uh later on our wedding anniversary, but uh May, I mean it was May 3rd, excuse me, which happens to be later on our wedding anniversary. We just celebrated a couple days ago. Yes, yeah. 57 years. Well God bless. I was a child bride, but yes, truly.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

You were you were very young.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And anyway, um so that started it, and then a few days later, on June 9th, 10th, we we had a three-day battle overlooking Camp Evans, which is a the camp for the 1st Air Cav Division, and there was a ridge where they were shooting rockets and stuff in, and they had observation posts up there. So a long-range reconnaissance patrol from the first cab went in there. They got ambushed, had three killed, and two others wounded out of six guys. A platoon from B Company, the one company that I was in initially, sent a platoon of 29 guys in. And nine people did not get killed or wounded. Most were wounded. They lost three or four killed out of the twenty-nine, but all but nine were either wounded or killed in that. So then they sent our company to go in with them.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

So we I was the first ship going in, helicopter going in, and helicopters based on how high you're going, temperature, humidity, have a air, what they call an A ALC aircraft load. There were four of us on the first bird in. Me, radio, machine gunner, and a medic. I could shoot, I could talk, and if we got shot, we could patch ourselves up. Well, that was that was my thinking. I thought, well, I think I got all the bases covered. Yeah, I think so. So we landed, linked, it moved up the ridge, linked up with the second platoon. I did not know the lieutenant. He had not been there when I was there, but I did know the sergeant. And the lieutenant told me, he said, um, they fired it a couple rounds at us, but they're gone. And I said, Wow, great, made my day. Dropped my rock, threw my helmet down, laid my weapon down, got the comp my platoon online, because and he I and he said, Follow me. And we went over and looked, and looked at because typically after a battle, we do what you call police the battle. Sure. You pick up well, dead, wounded, equipment, whatever. And in January we had done that. So and so I d I we had done it other times, so I knew the the drill and I was first on site. Second and third platoons were behind me. So I moved up and got online to do that. I assumed that's what we would do. But he and I walked over oh, fifty, seventy-five yards out, and I could still see one or two of the dead alert soldiers there. And there was a big hill kind of a in front of us. Figured we'd go up over the hill and set up for the night. So when the company commander and the other two platoons got there, I uh said, okay, here's the deal. And he said, All right, get online, place the battlefield. Well, we started to do that, and as we moved up and hit the hill area, from 15 feet away from me, a soldier popped out of the uh hill, went bam bam, fired two rounds, his rifle jammed. One missed me, and then the other one, yeah, usually you see pictures with a sleeve rolled up, went through my sleeve, didn't touch me. I guess I'll say scared. He almost said it because it scared me quite a bit. Um so I fired back and my round didn't, my rifle didn't jam. And at the same time, everything just started going. Um I my platoon tried to take that hill three times. We did not do it that day. Third platoon tried to do it. We had a three-day battle there, uh, and we found out later there were 79 positions on that hill. So it was a lot larger unit than us. We had to call in a lot of artillery, airstrikes, and everything else. But I'll get to the purple, it's a long story, sorry. But I uh you gotta kind of, I guess, understand the battle. So later the night of the first time, after we had already tried to make three attempts, and we were tired and worn out. We pulled back. It was dark, and we were calling in artillery. So the CO got the platoon leaders together. While I was there, our head medic was a guy named Richard Moss. And he said, Hey, Lieutenant, you got a lot of blood on your leg. Are you wounded? I said, Nah, I was just that's from other guys. You know, helping drag it back. And he said, Well, let me check. So I wrote my leg. He says, No, you're bleeding. He says, So he said, You got some sorry, pulled some hand grenade shrapnel out of my leg and passed me up a little bit. I uh said, Okay. And he and as I'm walking away, he said, Well, I'll take care of the paperwork. Well, in the army and the government, I worked for the government for 40 years uh later. You know, the the old joke is the work isn't complete until the paperwork's done.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

That's very true.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

And so I thought if you're just giving me a joke as I went away. Well, I don't know remember when. Some months later I got a purple heart for this hand grenade that was in my leg. In your leg. That I I I I was fairly busy that day and it wasn't that bad. Yeah. You know, I mean, and that was the first one.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Okay. I listened. Oh, I was just gonna tell the listeners if you if they're just tuning in now, in the studio with me is John Mansfield. Um he's sharing his experience in Vietnam, and uh he got to be part of the National Purple Heart Honor Mission in New York City, and so he's a Purple Heart recipient, and it's it's just it's really at one at one point it's it's it's in exciting to hear your experience, and at the other point, it kind of breaks my heart to hear your experience. So I am curious now to hear about the second Purple Heart. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Well, the the second one was not much later. This was May 9th, the second one was May 18th. So May 12th, we finally were up on top of the hill, and my platoon sergeant that had been in Hawaii getting married came back then. And we left the next day to go back to our old area in Heptack Valley and to our old fire support base, which was called Fire Support Base West. It was very imaginative when they moved us out. They set up East, Center, and West. You know, you're really, really hard name to remember, but yeah. Later on, we built one called Sooner, and that was because the guy that told us to go there was from Oklahoma. But anyway. That's lots of stories. But so we landed there, and while we had been up with the first calve, another unit was supposedly taking care of our AO, our area of operation, but not doing a very good job, in our opinion, because the NVA soldiers were pretty prevalent. So we walked off the base and were out on patrols, and we were getting mortared every single day. And um Richard Moss, the medic that said, Hey Lieutenant, yeah, died two days later by a mortar attack.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

And he's the guy who said I I completed I'll do the paperwork.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Yeah. Wow. Oh my. And hard that's a hard one. Yeah. That's a hard one.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Anyway. So a couple days later, if we were patrolling and getting mortared, we were working with Delta Company or two companies, because we only had about 90, 95 soldiers. We just really didn't if you're supposed to have about 180 in a company, robot half strength. Platoon's supposed to be 46. We usually had 28, 29, sometimes 30. Um, and so they put two of us together. And so on May 17th, our operations officer came down to visit and he said, um, you guys, we want you to we're gonna have you attack this hill. Hill was Nui Lawn. Nui in Vietnamese means hill, mountain. It kind of it depends upon and lawn is spirit ghost, similar kind of thing like that. And we had been getting fire from that location. In fact, they had shot down an old propeller airplane that was bombing them with a 50 caliber, basically a 50 caliber machine gun. It's technically it's a 12.7 millimeter, but basically the same thing. Um so he said, You guys ready to do that? And I said, Well, sure. As long as we take our toy and blow the heck out of it, bomb it, we'll go up and see what's left. And he said, No, we're gonna have you do a night attack and sneak up on them with no preparation. And basically I said, Are you out of your mind? How are 95 Americans gonna do this? Plus, we know there's a big enemy force up there. So we had an argument, but the operation guy was a major, the company commander agreed with him, he was a captain, and I was a lieutenant. So guess who lost that argument? But anyway. And he said, and by the way, you're leading it. So at 10 30 on May 17th, and the only reason I know some of these times is research for my book, but yeah, um, we went out of the dark and we started moving out. And as we got closer to the objective, we paused and stopped. And it it was on a what is called a saddle. And a saddle for a topographical map is like you have two little hills and kind of a valley in the middle, so it's you know, saddle saddle kind of bumps like that. And um so we stopped and I um waited for everybody to kind of catch up, and I told the CO, I said, I don't see, I don't hear anything over there. I said, we may do this. And so I sent a fire team over, four guys. I said, go over and see what you can see. And they moved out. Oh, a few hundred yards. Came back and said, We didn't see anything. We don't hear anything. I said, Okay. Um let's let's do it. And told CO, I said, we're moving. So we moved out and I got about to where they had been, and there was what they call tangle foot. It's barbed wire that's about a foot or so off the ground that you sometimes don't see, but you trip over it. And I just stepping over it when a machine gunner on the left opened about one second before everybody else. It gave us just a few seconds, or you know, a split second, and then all hell broke loose. And um my platoon lost two killed and thirteen wounded. Oh my heaven. Right then and there. Um and my second purple heart happened when we were getting mortared. Um, a guy named John Bazinian, we called him Buzz, was the team leader, and he had got wounded, and he was up Ford, and I'm yelling for the Ford Observer to get fi artillery fire, and they said he got shot. I said, Send his sergeant up. I gotta get some fire on these guys. While I'm doing that, I crawled up, got to Buzz, and I said, hang on, I'm gonna pull you back. And he said, Oh hell, just leave me here. I'm gonna die anyway. And I said, B.S. Yeah, I'm not leaving you here, and you ain't dying. So I pulled him back. And in fact, I saw him at this trip. Oh, wow. And uh I've seen him before at reunion. Okay. So he didn't die, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Obviously.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

And so then we got into a fight uh with those guys for twelve hours. And then according to the official record, they had shut they it started at 0158 in the morning. So it was dark. Yeah. And very dark, and we had we call hauled up, and we had to get some critically wounded out. And usually take you would throw smoke grenades so they could see to come in. Well, it's dark. Um, and what we use was trip flares. A trip flare sets off a light, and usually they're out in front of your position, so uh an enemy moving on trips over it, lights a position up, and then you can shoot 'em. So we had to choose to light up our position to get critically wounded soldiers out. Sure. And so for the next 12 hours we were there. But anyway, the way I got wounded was I it was mortar fragments in my hands, and then it right here on the side. Just just a small flesh wound. In fact, this one I really didn't even know I had too much. My hands I just kind of wrapped up till I a couple days later when I took my shirt off and it was the the blood had stuck to it. But anyway, so it was not a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

I think it's a big deal, but that that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

I was really busy.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yes, you were very much busy.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

But anyway, because the CO came up, and then we called in. When you call in airstrikes, they fire marking rounds. He inhaled a bunch of smoke and stuff, and he said, I can't breathe. I'm leaving. He said, You're in charge. So he took off, and so I'm now in charge of the company. So I was kind of busy. But so about 12 hours later, we'd been fighting all day. Later on, he determined there was at least a battalion or bigger there. We just we couldn't do anything with them. We went back a little over a click, uh, excuse me, a little over a kilometer and linked up with another company, and then they went up the next day, and the enemy had left by that. But one of the guys from one of the platoons, Tom Gilbert, was a radio officer or operator, and he counted I don't know for how long a period of time, but they had dropped 250 mortar rounds on us when he said, Oh, I'm gonna quit counting this board, I want to count anyway. And in 12 hours we had um, it was a long 12 hours.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Wow. I yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Well, let's kind of leap forward a little bit before we run out of time for the show.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

I got talking.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

But you know, uh, so many of us just kind of virtually experienced the Vietnam War through movies, and I was old enough to watch it on television, and and so your sharing is um it's humbling, it's very humbling. But I'm real curious how in the world you got to be part of this National Purple Heart honor mission, and how did they reach out to you and invite you?

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Well, it I don't know how it all all works. I know one one man that was there, Major James Caper, is a Marine, veteran of Vietnam, and the order has already been signed for him to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. And he was there. Uh it just had not been presented yet by uh President Trump. So probably in the next week or two you'll see it on the news. Okay. Um that he we in I I could show you a picture of him and me. But um we have uh three or four Military Order of the Purple Heart chapters in our area. Ours is chapter 66 in this area. And I we have had a couple other soldiers selected for that. And the department commander, I believe, I expressed an interest because I they had told me about the trip. And so I I they probably reach out to him and then he says, We'd like to send somebody from Iowa. And I it the other people that I talked to, selection it's similar to that, but not always. So it's one of those they always say don't volunteer in there, but but this was something kind of neat to volunteer for.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Yeah, very much so.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

So that's that's how it it came to be.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Yeah, and this is so cool. You are kind enough to bring along the um brochure that goes along with it. And I love this on the front, it says ensuring those who sacrificed for our freedom are never forgotten through outreach and educational programs. And that is so, so important. Um, because a lot of times we forget about the individuals who gave of their time and talent, and you know, so we could be safe. And so you get out to New York City, and uh, you know, what was the highlight of this experience for you?

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Well, seeing the side, uh I wanted to see West Point, I wanted to see uh the 9-11 memorial were highlight. But I think in in one of the interview I said talking to the other people, um, I mentioned Major James Capers. I got to talk to him and visit with him. I got a picture of him, uh Congressional Medal of Honor uh awardee, Three Purple Hearts. And so it was exciting to meet him. On the second day we were there, um we were at the National Museum, and everybody that has been here and others, they have a little computer program, a log or something that talks about you type in your name. And so I did that because I I they had had us join that and I sent them some pictures and stuff. And so I looked up and said Purple Heart on a ridgeline, you know, in May, and then on a night ambush in excuse me, May 18th, and had a couple pictures of me back when Shep was a pup and I was younger, but uh and then this older guy comes up to me, and I and it was kind of not intuitive, or I didn't think on how to work it, so I said, here I'll show you how. And I found his and we looked popped up, and it said, Purple of Heart, November 23rd, 1967, Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry. I said, Delta 431, and I said, I was an Alpha 431. I was there. That's the Thanksgiving Day battle. Yes. And I had never met him, but he was lieutenant in Delta Company, I was a lieutenant in Alpha Company, and then he and I were like long-lost brothers, and first time we'd ever met, and we talked about all the battles that we had fought together and everything. And it got so intense that we both said later on, we were teleported from New York, and we were back in Hep Duck Valley in Vietnam. And it was just we were both tingling, and we were we were laying in the dirty, eating the dirt, smelling the dirt that we walked together, and it was absolutely nuts. And and then I part of when I go to reunions, I carry Saint Peregrine coins. I don't know if you're aware of who St. Peregrine is.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

I am because I would like you to tell the listeners, yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

Patron saint of cancer. Yes. And I've had cancer four times. So I share coin, I always I had ten of them with me, and I gave eight of them out, and I share those, and I so I ask Al. Al LePart was this gentleman's name, and I said, I and he said, yes. So I gave him one, and then he reaches in his pocket, he pulls out this huge coin, big medallion as big as a tea saucer. And I said, he says, here, and I says, Al, you can't give me that. Well, come to find out, last year, Al was the com national commander-in-chief for the VFW, Veterans of Foreign Wars. Sure. And because of that, he carried around these huge coins and he gave me, I have it at home now, and and gave it to me. And Al and I um that was that was a highlight.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

It'd have to be. I mean, what are the chances? That is just that is the Holy Spirit working in mysterious ways.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Obviously. And then have we got time? Can I talk about one more?

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Only one more. Okay. Because we're almost out of time.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Right. At this concert.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

Oh, the concert for America's Heroes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Thursday night at the end of the concert. I was sitting there, and guy was here, and I was here because we had walked on the stage, turned to face the audience, introduced everybody, said what state you were from. So one guy heared me, the aisle's here. John Bazign, believe me, I'm gonna die anyway. Yes. Walked down the aisle and said hello. Oh my god. He and his wife were there. I knew they lived in upstate New York. I'd seen him, last time I'd seen him was five years ago at a reunion. He didn't know I was gonna be in this concert. I didn't know he lived 15 minutes away from where we were at. He and his wife Anne Marie walked down, said hello. He was telling everybody, that's my lieutenant. That's my lieutenant. Got to hug him, and Anne Marie came down and got to hold her and say, Hello.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Hello. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

That was the last night, and the next morning I got up and come home. Wow. You tell me God doesn't have plans for all of us. I tell you he does.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

Absolutely. It's kind of even that uh remember the good old saying my dad used to say that he he served in World War II. Uh, there are no atheists in foxholes. Because there's so many times that the Lord watches over you. Um, you know, and thank you so much for sharing with the listeners, you know, the the losses of your um your other comrades, and you know, that you were injured as well. And yet, you know, full circle, you get to go to New York and see people. And I I really liked it. He said, you know, when you connected, that you could the memories just wash over you. You smell the dirt, you taste the dirt, you feel the dirt, the heat, the cold, all of that stuff. What an absolutely incredible experience for you, John. It uh it it it just it it humbles me. So I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share with our listeners all these experiences. I know that they're they're on the edge of their seats like I am, just hearing all of this. So again, thank you so very much for for sharing not only uh the war memories, but the whole experience with the National Purple Heart Honor mission.

unknown 44:00

Thank you for serving.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Yes, and thank you for serving.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Uh we are grateful. You're very welcome, and uh thank you for inviting me. And I'm the Irish in me comes out. I guess I become loquacious and talk too much sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

Well, we always wish we had more time when our guests come in, and but you know, that's just the nature of our business. So, listeners, uh that wraps up another edition of Faith in Action. Thank you so much for being supportive and listening. And I want to remind you if you tuned in late, you can always go to our website, Siouxlandcatholicradio.com, and click on um Faith in Action. All of the shows are there. We're also having uh some great local programming. Um the Divine Mercy Chaplet is daily at 3 p.m. The Modern Day Mass airs on Sundays at 9 a.m. Life Plan, which comes out of Omaha, airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. And of course, my show, Faith in Action, Mondays at 9 and replays Saturdays at 7. Catholic Ministry Professionals airs Tuesdays at 4 p.m. Draw Near with Fred and Kara airs Wednesday at 4 p.m. And Father Knows Best with Father Mark Stoll Wednesday at 9 p.m. And again, all those shows are podcast on our website. So again, thank you so very much for taking time out of your schedule to uh listen to Faith in Action. I'm your host, Joanne Fox, and uh remember that um our show uh is sponsored by um Mary's Choice, a Sioux City Pregnancy Resource Center, which is the exclusive underwriter for this show. So, on behalf of myself and my executive producer, Ann Reed, I want to remind you that a faithful reaction is good, but faith in action, it's so much better. Thanks for listening and God bless.