My name is John Huffman, and I am a Vietnam Veteran.
I was just 17 years old when I joined the 101st Airborne. My father served in the Army in WWII, and my uncle in Korea. Both men were purple heart recipients. I spent six years with the 101st, and seven years with the 82nd, both great units. I served in the Army from January 1966 until January 1986 with 120th Aviation, and 1 / 27th Infantry and retired as a major. I had two tours in Vietnam, the first from July ’66 to July ’67, as an Infantryman, and later going over as a private E-2 and returning as a sergeant E-5. The second was as a lieutenant in ’72 – ’73, where I flew helicopters.
My worst experience was being wounded four times for which I received three purple hearts. I was wounded twice in one battle, thirty-one hours apart, so only got one purple heart for the two wounds. My greatest fear was when I was trapped in my burning helicopter after one of the four times I was shot down. I thought I was going to be burned alive. But luckily, I extracted my leg from the wreckage and made it out safely. I am pictured here with two classmates and was an honor graduate of the Fort bliss Drill Instructor School. The other photo shows me swearing in two of my soldiers who enlisted while I was a company commander with the 3/187th Infantry Regiment. This is an image of my cobra in Germany, after I had to make an emergency landing… When I returned from both of my tours, I was spat on and called a baby-killer. My combat experiences changed me forever, as I suffer from PTSD.
I was getting divorced and had a five year old son that I thought I would never see again because my ex was moving from SC to California, so I wrote a biography for him when he got older. As it turned out, I got joint custody of my son, which had never been done before in SC, and didn’t lose him. Five years later I remarried and my new bride found the manuscript that I had written and placed in an old shoe box. She read it and encouraged me to to publish it, and it immediately won a national award. Each of the next seven novels I have written were all encouraged by her, from stories I told her. Each of my eight novels are dedicated to her.
I have written eight novels, four of them on Vietnam, and won seven national awards on them.
~John W. Huffman, Vietnam Veteran and author
www.johnwhuffman.com
Special thanks to John for his service and sharing his story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, where we are all connected. John’s books are available @ www.amazon.com/John-W.-Huffman/e/…/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
God Bless all who serve and keep us safe.
Veteran Tributes: www.facebook.com/ComesASoldierswhisper
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