Part 11… The Wait

After Boyd’s initial letter, the days passed slowly. I went to work and waited for each letter. Every time I got a little more information that I pieced together. His injury was caused by one bullet entering just below his knee and severing the main artery in his right leg. In a field hospital in the middle of the Tet Offensive they operated and replaced the artery with a vein from his left leg. It was an experimental procedure that has supplied blood to that leg for over fifty years.. He developed gangrene and had a lot of infected tissue and bone removed leaving the leg looking like red meat. There were discussions about the possibility of amputation. My joy was not dampened. With or without his leg, he would come home.

I continued to get letters sporadically for the next six weeks, never with as much information as I wanted. He was kept in Vietnam for several weeks due to the vascular transplant. He tells the story of being transferred to Japan in a helicopter wearing only a sheet with his catheter clamped. He returned to the states with little. They had paid him while in Japan and he bought himself a radio. Months later some of his personal items were shipped back. He never recieved his dog tags. He did receive a purple heart.