Lee’s Story
Lee’s Story:
October 20, 2023… This is an unusual story about a very special Veteran with an unusual Bucket List Dream.
This story is written by a fellow Veteran Vet who had his life significantly impacted by this kind and generous man… Lee. Lee was born and raised in Southeastern Michigan. He attended college in Michigan and was commissioned into the US Air Force. His degree was in Psychology and consequently this young Lieutenant was sent to Vietnam.
For every man in the field in Vietnam there were 50 support people. These people performed every kind of service imaginable… from food, to construction, mechanical support, administrative support… to name a few… and of course medical. One of Lee’s duties was probably one of the most difficult jobs a person could ever be asked to do. War and tragedy go hand in hand. People die, are maimed and in some cases suffer mental breakdowns. These are difficult cases to deal with. To be responsible for a man completely ‘broken’ emotionally is very difficult thing to be charged with. Lee’s job was to get these unfortunate people stabilized enough to be sent to where they could get much needed psychiatric treatment. This was just one of Lee’s duties. Performing such a difficult assignment takes a very special person. That person was Lee.
Lee returned home as a Captain and was discharged. His work and commitment to Veterans did not end, however. Lee went on to make a career of helping Veterans. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that Lee saved many Veterans. He dedicated his life to them. He guided them to healthier lives and was able to “bring them home”.
Your writer is one of those Veterans. Lee helped me to work through many issues. I would like to tell you about one such event. I brought home with me a captured Communist SKS rifle. It was picked up off the battlefield with the bayonet stained with blood. The rifle stayed in my gun safe for many years and was rarely touched. To me it was almost dirty because there was no way of knowing if the blood was American or South Vietnamese. To this day I have guilt issues… guilt that I did not do enough over there and guilt for what the American people did to Vietnamese people. The only reason the war was not won, and the Vietnamese people freed was because the American people allowed themselves to be manipulated the Communist Peace Movement in the US. The American people were fools. The consequence was, far more Americans died over there than needed and the Vietnamese were abandoned to ultimately be killed, confined, and relegated to a life under Communist control.
The rifle for me became a symbol of everything I was ashamed of so I never shot it and just hid it away. One day Lee came to me and said that we were going to my home, that we were going to get the rifle, and we were going to his farm to deal with my issues. He walked me into the woods, took the weapon, loaded it, and fired it. He said, “it is just a thing that for some reason I had made important… needlessly”. He said that it was critical for me and my guilt issues to get past the resentment to this rifle. He handed me the rifle and walked out of the woods. He said on the way out, “shoot the rest of ammo and don’t come out until you do… it’s just a thing”. It took some time but after about 30 minutes of thinking about the whole thing, I fired. I had moved on! I tell this story because this is just one situation and one Veteran out of many that he helped with… there were more Veterans than I can count that benefited from Lee’s, sometimes unorthodox approach to treatment. He was always willing to go the extra mile for a fellow ‘brother’.
Lee has long since been disabled by the VA. He is sick and is largely homebound. When we at Bucket List Dreams went to him to see if there was anything we could for him, he said, “you know what I would like most, is a really good cup of coffee.”
Bucket List Dreams now keeps Lee stocked with our Bucket List Beans and will do so as long as he wants it.
God bless you Lee… and Thanks, Brother.
