Vietnam Vet ?
When i first got out of the military i worked for an airplane company named Dyncorp. The base i worked at closed and they were transfering me to Mississippi to work so i quit and moved back to NC.
I went to work for a Vietnam vet who hired 75% ex military. I spent a lot of hours around the owner of the company. Sid Tolsen but he never told me any war stories. We told plenty of stories about military things but he never mentioned anything about war.
He was an orphan who was getting beat regularly so at 16 he forged his birth certificate and joined the marines. He went into recon.
I do know he had 3 purple hearts and other metals but i am not sure what the others are.
I do know he was out on patrol and everyone was sleeping and the guard fell asleep and when he woke up a rifle was in his face. When he woke up he was shot in the face.
He had a scar from his hairline going between his eyes and then to the left of his face. He was shot about 2 inches from his face. He lost an eye and had breathing problems the rest of his life.
Everyone that was in his unit died that night except him.
He was behind enemy lines and crawled and staggered back to safety.
I would love to find out what metals he earned but i have not seen his wife since i quit working for him. He died about 20 years ago from a heart attack.
He is a true American success story. He grew up in an orphanage with nothing and then went to war. When he got out of the military he became a small town cop.
He came up with a way to make a machine better and then things took off from there. When he died he owned 2 companies and was worth over 87 million dollars.
Any idea how i could find out what metals he earned.
I went to work for a Vietnam vet who hired 75% ex military. I spent a lot of hours around the owner of the company. Sid Tolsen but he never told me any war stories. We told plenty of stories about military things but he never mentioned anything about war.
He was an orphan who was getting beat regularly so at 16 he forged his birth certificate and joined the marines. He went into recon.
I do know he had 3 purple hearts and other metals but i am not sure what the others are.
I do know he was out on patrol and everyone was sleeping and the guard fell asleep and when he woke up a rifle was in his face. When he woke up he was shot in the face.
He had a scar from his hairline going between his eyes and then to the left of his face. He was shot about 2 inches from his face. He lost an eye and had breathing problems the rest of his life.
Everyone that was in his unit died that night except him.
He was behind enemy lines and crawled and staggered back to safety.
I would love to find out what metals he earned but i have not seen his wife since i quit working for him. He died about 20 years ago from a heart attack.
He is a true American success story. He grew up in an orphanage with nothing and then went to war. When he got out of the military he became a small town cop.
He came up with a way to make a machine better and then things took off from there. When he died he owned 2 companies and was worth over 87 million dollars.
Any idea how i could find out what metals he earned.
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Sounds like a person that I would have been proud to shake hie hand. 0 -
Those that saw the real tragedy of war hardly spoke of it.
My dad was WWII vet, his "tour" was in Germany and France.
A few weeks before he passed he said with tears in his eyes, the destruction and death that he saw was almost unbearable.
BUT he said it was better to stop the enemy there than have to deal with them here.
He almost made it to 95 years old.0 -
dav1965, sounds like you were fortunate and proud to have known Sid.
My old boss of 17 years, Seth was the President of the Alumni at the Point. He was a chopper jockey in Nam. He just missed a roadside bomb set by The Red Brigade with Gen. Haig in Belgium.
Not a week went by that he did not tell me how much he Appreciated my employment. The big "C" got him Feb 8th five years ago. I miss his smiling face. Some of us were lucky.0 -
?.I think the real reason most don't talk about fighting,is its so hard to remember the actual incidents...some are plain as day others are so vial you try and close it out..thats why I don't care for Hollywood renditions ?.Vietnam was by all accounts the worse nite mare..55,000 for nothing.... 0 -
Nobody's war is like anybody else's war. Everyone's experience is unique. Those who keep it all bottled up tend to explode like basement beer. It can be completely palliative to tell your story - or at least I found it to be so.
It is estimated that almost 90% of the people who went to Vietnam never saw any actual combat. Most were support troops of some kind or other and never left the confines of bases. But the other 10% had it rough to horrific. I'd bet that most of the suicides since then come from the latter group.0
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