Current Residence: Springfield, Ohio
Family: Wife: Sharon; Children: Nathan Ark, Kara Ark Thomas, and Matthew; Son-in-law Billy Thomas; Grandchildren: Morgan Marie Ark, Joel Randall Thomas and Gabriel Matthew Thomas
Career After the Military: Special Ed.Teacher / Intervention Specialist; Professional Musician; worked at Upper Valley Mall for 6 years in Housekeeping.
Hobbies: Reading, writing for newspapers, traveling, grandchildren,
Branch of Service: United States Army
Did you join the military or were you drafted? I was drafted in November of 1967, then decided to join to assure that I would be a medical corpsman.
Dates of Service: Deployments / Bases: Eight weeks Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina; 10 weeks Advanced Infantry Training / Medical Training at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas; 12 months in the Republic of South Vietnam, Long Bien, Di-An, Lai Khe. Various fire bases. Ft. Carson, Colorado. (to finish out my obligation)
Total time that you served? Two years, nine months; three month early out for college. April 4, 1968 to Jan. 4, 1971
What did you do in the Service? My duty was a combat medical corpsman. I attended to the wounded in the Medical Battalion I was first assigned to and then in the line mobile 8th/6th Artillery.
Usually, I was busy treating wounded during rocket and mortar attacks in our 8” battery. (Four 8” Cannons)
In the Medical Battalion, there was a group of doctors and medical corpsmen (like me) and we took vehicles to various villages in the surrounding area around Lai Khe and treated the villagers. These were called Med-Caps.
What did you gain from serving in the military? I gained a sense of patriotism. I learned how to get along with others, become more personally disciplined, and more importantly, I gained an appreciation of life. I know how bad living conditions can be and I thank God for the pillow under my head each night and for the opportunities He affords me to help others.
What do you remember most about your service? I remember rats crawling over me at night when I was trying to sleep. They only bit me once though, so I was lucky that way.
I remember being new in the Artillery Battery I was assigned to on the perimeter of Lai Khe. About three days in, we came under an intense barrage of rocket and mortar fire around 0230 in the early morning hours. I remember there being about 17 wounded that night and sometime in all that running under fire, I was hit with shrapnel in the chest and legs. I was not hit bad, luckily.
What would you like readers to know about your military experience? I think that every person should have a military experience to gain an appreciation of the country in which we are blessed to live. I don't want anyone to experience war, of course, but hopefully gain an appreciation for the USA and a better understanding of those who have served. The entitlement attitude of late is contrary to what our founders envisioned for its citizens living here.
Is there anything else you want readers to know about you that we didn't ask? I was honored beyond words to be inducted into The Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor in April of 2015. I accepted this medal and the induction on behalf of all medics. I considered my actions to be no different or valorous than that any combat medic doing what medics are trained to do.
Hometown Heroes is a weekly feature profiling Clark and Champaign County veterans compiled with the assistance of local Vietnam veteran Randy Ark. To nominate a veteran, e-mail samantha.sommer@coxinc.com or randyark48@gmail.com or call 937-328-0363. Any veteran of any military branch, years of service and age is eligible to be profiled.
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