My father served in the Marines in WWII and was wounded at Guadalcanal.

I served in Vietnam, with the 1st Cav from 1968 to 1970. My experiences in Vietnam certainly changed me. I never talked about my service until recently. I was married for 19 years and my ex-wife still doesn’t know that I served in combat in Vietnam. I just did my job over there as well as I could. It was something that I decided to put on a far back shelf and never bring out. I worked for Senator Birch Bayh from Indiana in the 70’s after returning from Vietnam. I served as his assistant for foreign affairs while he was on the Senate Foreign Relations committee and later as his legislative assistant for military affairs.

Joe Galloway is pictured here with his wife Grace at a veteran’s appreciation dinner in Phoenix in October 2015. He worked as a reporter for UPI, beginning in early 1965 during the Vietnam War. Joe has helped me to talk about my war experience a little bit. I do not try to relive my time In country nor do I talk about it very much. The last photo is of 1st Cav Colonel Joe Marm, a Medal of Honor recipient. I am on the left wearing the Stetson.

I loved being a SOLDIER. I loved the wonderful, brave men with whom it is my eternal privilege to have served. I love them still. It is the only name that I have been called that I wear proudly. It’s a name that has to be earned.

It is a name that I paid dearly with blood and tears to earn.
~ Allen Wood, Vietnam Veteran

Veteran Stories Collected by Jenny La Sala www.JennyLasala.com