Mike West recollects the February 2021 day when his spouse, Lois, answered the door at their West Salem residence.
“My spouse mentioned, ‘Some huge man is on the door and says you saved him in Vietnam,'” he mentioned.
The large man was Terry Shepardson.
For the subsequent a number of hours, West and Shepardson relived their life-and-death expertise collectively in Vietnam. The 2 renewed their friendship as Shepardson lastly got here to phrases with a terrifying day in 1970 when an explosion burned 40% of his physique.
The accidents left Shepardson bodily and mentally scarred. Additionally they, till lately, left him unable to specific gratitude to West, a fellow La Crosse Central Excessive Faculty pupil, who acknowledged Shepardson as he lay injured and was one of many first to deal with him for his wounds.
Shepardson’s story started in La Crosse, the place he determined in seventh grade that he wished to grow to be a Marine. His ambition by no means wavered, whilst photos of lifeless and wounded troopers in Vietnam had been being broadcast again residence. He admired the Marines for his or her “spit shine” and “toughness.”
“I at all times wished to hitch the Marine Corps,” Shepardson mentioned. “The coaching was exhausting. At the moment, it was the hardest within the service.”
By the point he was sufficiently old to enroll, his mom had remarried, and the brand new household moved to farm close to Taylor. He graduated from Taylor Excessive Faculty in 1969.
“I used to be 17 once I joined,” Shepardson mentioned. “I simply had my mom signal the papers.”
Over the subsequent six months, he educated in California and bought married earlier than touchdown in Vietnam in January 1970. He was assigned to the third Battalion, fifth Marines Headquarters and Provide Firm and was greeted by 93-degree climate and the unpredictable day-to-day cycle of tropical fight. His unit was roughly 25 miles from Da Nang and ignored a “free hearth zone.”
“If there was any motion, you shot at it,” he mentioned. “I fired photographs at the very least thrice an evening.”
West, in the meantime, graduated from Central in 1967. He joined his father’s portray enterprise after highschool whereas signing up for the Navy Reserves.
“They’d a program the place you be a part of the Navy Reserves however someday you needed to go on energetic obligation for 2 years,” he mentioned.
That point got here in June 1969. He educated in Guam and volunteered for Vietnam obligation as a part of a medical evacuation unit. He arrived in Da Nang in January 1970 and was assigned to a hospital ship named Sanctuary.
West shortly got here face-to-face with the horrors of navy fight.
“We would see amputees, lifeless individuals and every thing,” he mentioned. “They got here 24/7.”
It would not be lengthy earlier than the 2 former classmates would cross paths midway around the globe from Central Excessive Faculty.
Explosion
Shepardson will always remember Could 20, 1970. He was amongst 10 troopers gathered in a bunker for a gathering to report the day past’s patrol exercise. The bunker contained meals, ammunition, cleansing fluid and, ominously, gasoline that was used to scrub weapons.
Round 4 p.m., Shepardson heard a “click on” within the air. That was adopted by an explosion and a hearth. To today, Shepardson does not know what prompted the explosion.
“I turned my head, and unexpectedly the God dang place simply blew — blew proper up.” he mentioned. “The following factor I knew, I used to be burning, flying within the air, and I landed 25 to 30 yards from the bunker. I used to be burning, on hearth.”
Shepardson had sustained second- and third-degree burns to 40% of his physique. His ache was compounded by a well-meaning gunner who threw a blanket on high of him. The blanket caught to his thighs.
“There have been 4 or 5 of us damage actual dangerous,” he mentioned. “You possibly can’t think about the scent of 4 or 5 guys who had been burned like that.”
Shepardson was loaded onto a helicopter headed for the medical ship, the place he was startled to see a well-known face delivering emergency medical consideration.
“I mentioned, ‘Mike, you son of a bitch,’ and right here he was, Mike, two ft away caring for me — placing the IV in, cleansing off my wounds, checking my temperature and my blood stress and ensuring I used to be respiratory alright,” Shepardson mentioned. “He mentioned ‘Terry, Terry,’ and that is the final I heard of him for 3 days … I handed out with the morphine shot.”
West acknowledged his Central classmate immediately and made certain Shepardson was included in his every day rounds.
“Once we got here in with the helicopter, I instructed them there is a man from my hometown and I wish to deal with him,” West mentioned.
Shepardson mentioned his classmate adopted by. He remembers West placing him within the bathe and performing the fragile and painstaking job of adjusting bandages on burned pores and skin.
“Mike was caring for me,” Shepardson mentioned. “I do know he had his different individuals, however I used to be one in all his previous boys from La Crosse.”
Shepardson remained on the ship for 10 days earlier than he and his severely wounded comrades had been flown to Tokyo. Not all of them survived. 5 days after arriving in Japan, Shepardson’s buddy, Steve Lowe, died from his accidents. Shepardson was mendacity in mattress subsequent to Lowe when he “flat-lined.”
“I seemed over, and so they had been beating his chest,” he mentioned. “He was gone, and all of us knew it.”
Lyndon Johnson
From Tokyo, Shepardson flew to San Diego after which to the Veterans Administration hospital at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, the place he was a affected person for six months.
He recalled a June day on the facility when a well-known man carrying a cowboy hat walked into his room.
“I virtually handed out,” he mentioned. “I laid at consideration. It was LBJ.” The letters stood for Lyndon Baines Johnson, the previous president of the US.
“He invited us to have dinner the subsequent day as a result of he knew they took us out on weekends to go across the space and get us out of the hospital,” Shepardson mentioned. “It was Texas, and what LBJ wished, LBJ bought.”
Johnson invited the troopers to his ranch and later to his birthplace, which opened to the general public with vital fanfare that week.
” Woman Chook Johnson (his spouse) was with him on the bus, and he mentioned in a Southern drawl, ‘I’ll exit and cook dinner some steaks, and I am simply questioning what number of of you guys need some steak,” Shepardson mentioned. “In fact, all of the arms go up, and all people is hooting and hollering.”
He mentioned Johnson disappeared for the subsequent couple of hours whereas Woman Chook stayed with the veterans and personally served them lemonade. There was additionally a case of Lone Star beer on a close-by desk that did not final lengthy.
From there, they went to Johnson’s birthplace, the place 1000’s of individuals confirmed up for the opening. Shepardson mentioned he and his fellow troopers got choice.
“(Johnson) opened the door and mentioned, ‘You guys are coming in first,'” Shepardson mentioned.
Johnson gave each soldier a e-book he authored after leaving the White Home. He signed each of their presence.
“He had books on the market, however he gave them to us,” he mentioned. “My buddy bought the primary one, and I bought the second.”
Return residence
Shepardson was honorably discharged from the Marines in April 1971 and underwent extra surgical procedure at a VA hospital in Milwaukee earlier than returning residence, the place he discovered his first little one was on the best way.
Nonetheless, his return residence wasn’t joyful. He suffered from alcohol abuse and churned by a number of jobs earlier than his spouse sought a divorce.
“My life was a multitude for the subsequent 15 years,” he mentioned. “It was a tough time emotionally and bodily. Issues weren’t proper.”
Shepardson give up ingesting in 1987. He mentioned that call turned his life round and led to regular employment at Fort McCoy till 2002, when he moved to Michigan after his job was transferred there.
He married his second spouse, Toniann, and the 2 lived in New York and South Carolina till she died earlier this 12 months. He moved again to La Crosse shortly after her loss of life.
As Shepardson was placing his life again collectively, the one factor he could not do was relive the occasions of Could 1970. For 5 a long time, he shunned a reunion with West.
West would not have been exhausting to seek out. He acquired his discharge from the navy in January 1971, returned to Wisconsin and married Lois in 1978. He attended UW-La Crosse for two 1/2 years and returned to industrial portray with regular assignments at Fort McCoy.
At his 10-year class reunion, one in all West’s pals satisfied him to work for his insurance coverage agency. West finally took over the enterprise and ran M. West & Associates till he retired in 2010. Like Shepardson, he’s 100% disabled based mostly on his navy service, has PTSD and endured a number of well being challenges since he retired.
After his discharge, West mentioned he tried to contact Shepardson at the very least a half dozen instances with no success. He really noticed Shepardson in 1976 however wasn’t in a position to method him.
“I noticed him at a softball match, and I went up and mentioned, ‘Hey, Terry,’ however he simply walked away,” West mentioned. “He wasn’t prepared but, I suppose.”
Shepardson was lastly prepared in 2021.
“After 50 years, I lastly mentioned I might face it,” he mentioned. “Emotionally, it was nonetheless fairly exhausting, however this man saved me, and I wished to be sure that I noticed him and communicated with him.”
On the day of the reunion, Shepardson stopped on the Brenengan Kia dealership in West Salem for an oil change. He approached one other buyer and requested if he knew West. Not solely did the client know West, he had bought insurance coverage from him. The client then pulled out a enterprise card and drew a map to West’s residence (Shepardson nonetheless has the cardboard).
Shepardson went straight to the West residence with out calling forward, which solely added to the extraordinary emotion of the second.
“I could not perceive him for about an hour as a result of he was crying so exhausting,” West mentioned. “We each cried for a very long time.”
Shepardson mentioned the 2 have achieved quite a lot of catching up.
“Since that point, we’re nonetheless making an attempt to undergo previous instances — some exhausting instances and a few dangerous instances,” he mentioned. “I am 100% disabled, and so is Mike, so we’re each watching out for one another now.”
Shepardson mentioned looking for out West “was the perfect factor I ever did.” He appears to be like ahead to having his total household meet West someday quickly.
“I need my youngsters to know every thing that occurred,” he mentioned. “They know he saved me, however they do not know a lot about his life. It is going to be a contented event.”
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