"Heroes," an Excerpt

I received a letter from Steve’s parents several months after I arrived at my assignment in Saigon. They wrote that Steve had been killed saving most of the members of his platoon in one of those ambushes nobody expected to survive. They said that, at his funeral, the citation words of his incredible bravery, describing why he was awarded a Silver Star with Valor, were read by his commanding officer, a young First Lieutenant who was missing an arm and an eye. The LT, with silent tears running down his face, said that the only reason he, and most of his platoon were alive, was that Steve would not allow his own mortal wounds to kill him until he had insured the survival of his brothers. When the ‘evac’ copters came in to take them out of that hell, Steve, in spite of numerous wounds of his own, carried two unconscious soldiers to them. Then he refused to leave, and he laid down suppressive fire against the Vietcong until everyone else was on the copter. At that moment he started crumpling like a rag doll, and they pulled him aboard. He died within seconds, but the LT said Steve's wounds were so severe, as he was saving everyone else, that he considered it miraculous that he could even walk, much less carry other men to the chopper. The LT said he would gladly give his remaining arm and eye if it would bring Steve back. 

This story is continued in The Hiroshima Agenda, which you can sample and or buy at www.amazon.com/dp/B00XXCVODO