Huckleberries Online

LaSarte Finally Gets Hero’s Welcome

Posted by DFO

March 26, 2009 10:05 a.m. • 9 comments

Vic LaSarte (pictured above), now 60, received the Bronze Star for being one of the last soldiers to leave a firebase as the enemy overran the position. He made sure the wounded were evacuated and that nothing useful including ammunition or weapons was left to the enemy that swept in from the jungles along the DMZ. He was five months into his tour and a piece of shrapnel struck him in the leg. “We encountered hand to hand combat,” he recalls. “I was blown off the hooch.” The explosion left him hobbling to a remaining helicopter that fluttered away ushering LaSarte and his fellow soldiers to safety/Ralph Bartholdt, St. Maries Gazette-Record. More here. Publisher Dan Hammes comment here.

Question: Did you serve in Vietnam?

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Kibby on March 26 at 11:23 a.m.
What a great story. Thank you for sharing that with the rest of us.
Stickman on March 26 at 8:37 p.m.
Did I serve? Yes. Along the same DMZ, maybe a mile from that border for over a year. I was 19. I was scared every single day, and am very proud of my service to this day, even though many consider it a waste. I was there for all of you. I hadn’t a clue what the political climate was at the time, but I sure found out when I came back. It has mellowed in a sense since then, but a tragedy at the time. Many never got over it. If you see a Vietnam Vet in your travels, please thank him for his service, he needs that to make his life worthwhile.
Stickman on March 26 at 8:47 p.m.
I tell the story sometimes of a young man who on his last day in country, was killed in an ambush. One of the tears of my life, even to this day. I cry everytime I think of him. His name was Billy, and he was 19. And another of a young man who was wounded calling in an air strike on his own position. He wished he died that day, but didn’t. He is still here, and I take the time each week to go to his house and give him a bath, as he is embarrassed to let anyone else do it. Did we serve, damn right! Never forget the ones that came before you to keep you free.
Stickman on March 26 at 8:57 p.m.
I am sorry for being so emotional, but that period in my life and for this country always makes me want to go back to The Wall and pay homage to the many young men that hadn’t a clue what we were going through, but still went and served. Please, for me, always honor our Vets. Thank you.
JIMMYMAC on March 26 at 11:50 p.m.
Stickman,

THANK YOU for your service and sharing your memories. You can always get emotional here sharing your memories with us. I’m visting The Wall next month on the 15th for the very first time. Let me know if there is anything I can fly back there with and leave, whether from you or any other Vet you know. It would be a complete honor.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.