I was experiencing a nightmare in slow motion. I never saw where the grenade came from until it landed at my feet. The resulting explosion threw me backwards. Terrified, I got to my feet only to be hit by two rounds fired from an AK-47, knocking me back to the ground. I thought I was having a bad dream until the North Vietnamese soldier standing over me plunged his bayonet into my abdomen. This nightmare was real and never ending.

When the shock wore off and the pain hit me from every part of my body, I knew I was going to die on that trail. In a fog, I watched as my Navy Corpsman and a Marine Lance Corporal began pulling me to safety. The pain, the confusion, the helicopter flight, and being taken into triage at the 95th Medical Evacuation Center Da Nang was a blur. Then a mask was placed over my face and everything disappeared.

The following 10-12 days were a blur of pain, followed by sedation with multiple emergency surgeries. On the sixth day, my brother arrived, and I heard the doctor tell him I was going to die. There was nothing else they could do. When he recognized the terribly disfigured body on the bed, he collapsed in shock and tears.

I was only 22, but a fear greater than anything I experienced on the battlefield brought me face to face with eternity. In fear, I cried out to a God I knew of, but did not know personally. I prayed, “God, if there really is a God, if you let me live, I’ll do anything you want!” I passed out. God answered that desperate prayer, but I just moved on with life. Or so I thought.

For four and a half years I relived Vietnam every night. While successful in my career, alcohol and anger were about to torpedo it as well as my marriage. Then God intervened! Shirley and I met Jesus Christ in an encounter that can only be described as a miracle; we surrendered our lives to Him. We’ve never looked back.

By the time you read this, Shirley and I will have arrived in Saigon, Vietnam. This is my 20th and last trip with a Christian veteran’s group called Vets With A Mission (VWAM). My first trip was in 1989, 19 years after I left the country on a stretcher. I never, ever wanted to go back. However, a funny thing happens when you surrender your life completely to Jesus Christ. Your life is not your own.

Two months after becoming a Christian, I knew I was going back. It would take 14 years before God opened the door to go with VWAM. My life was about to be rocked beyond anything I could have ever imagined. My “plan” of one and done to revisit the place that had so greatly impacted my life is now my 20th trip. I would meet with men who had once tried to kill me, and me them! What happened beginning on that first trip 34 years ago? Forget every movie about Vietnam. The communists ruled the country, but at what cost?

Stay with me for the next two weeks as I continue to send dispatches from Vietnam!