SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — This week, Nexstar stations, including KELOLAND TV, are honoring Vietnam Veterans and their service.
This year marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War and we meet another Vet from Sioux Falls who was shot and paralyzed during the war.
In 1968, Sgt Gene Murphy was part of a search and destroy mission in the jungles of Vietnam.
He had already been through hell. Lots of times.
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“I didn’t think they could take me out, they’d shoot with both red and green tracer. I’ve had them hit the tree I’m hiding behind right in front of the bunker that I’m in, it scared the living daylights out of you,” Murphy said.
But eleven months into his tour, just days away from coming home, it happened.
“I got shot twice through the right side and I didn’t see the guy. I was up on point and he knocked me down. I thought he blew my legs off,” Murphy said.
Despite acting as if he were dead, he was shot again in the right leg. It left him paralyzed from the waist down.
He was only 20 years old.
“Being wounded, I thought I was going to meet my maker, I thought the good Lord was taking me. I actually had seen the people who had been in my lifetime float above me with just their faces, though,” Murphy said. “I told him point blank I don’t want to go yet and I think he probably let me live, but I always think we signed a contract, he’d let me live and go back to the world because I had work to be done.”
And he held true to his promise.
Murphy has worked here at the Disabled American Veterans organization, or DAV, in Sioux Falls.
“To help my brothers and sisters, I always think I was fortunate, I always say the good Lord Jesus Christ let Sgt Murphy live to help my brothers and sisters to get the benefits and the health care they need,” Murphy said.
He’s been helping other vets now for 50 years.
The DAV takes veterans to their medical appointments, helps buy medical equipment they might need, or even take them on hunting trips.
“You know, I think that helps them, we go to like ‘Wings of Valor’ down by Parker, what an outfit,” Murphy said.
Murphy says for some of them it’s life-changing.
Murphy has served as the DAV department adjutant, been elected department commander and was named the DAV’s Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year in 1984.
As part of honoring Vietnam veterans, KELOLAND’s Don Jorgensen is going to be hosting a panel discussion with veterans tomorrow at 3 pm at the Military Heritage Alliance.
Then this Saturday night at 7 pm, KELO TV is going to be airing a special, titled Vietnam War: A Lost Generation.
You can also tune in for a special edition of Inside KELOLAND as we share the stories of local Vietnam veterans and take a look back at KELOLAND’s trip to Vietnam in 1988.
Inside KELOLAND airs Saturday at 9:00 A.M and again on Sunday at 10:30 P.M.
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