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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes. Join us in the boat today as we feature retired
00:08U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran Don Weber. They served for us. They sacrificed for us.
00:21Their stories deserve to be told. Every military veteran has a story to tell.
00:32Join our host, Jay Garstecki, as we honor the stories of our true American heroes, one
00:40soldier at a time. The mission today is Operation Healing Heroes.
00:49Brought to you by Great Clips. A new day dawns on La Crosse, Wisconsin. Perched on the banks
01:02of the mighty Mississippi, La Crosse is home to a Wisconsin native and U.S. Marine, Don
01:09Weber. So you said it's been a number of years since you've been on the river? Did you fish
01:14the river much or no? My dad did. You know, he would go out. When he had any spare time
01:20and he had very little, he'd be out on the river fishing. Like I said, this has been years.
01:28It's just amazing. It's so special. It's calming. Yeah. I mean, you know, you feel like you're
01:35disconnected. Don't you? I mean, you're right out there. But you're disconnected. I grew up
01:41on a family farm. My dad and mom had a dairy farm from very young on. We had chores to do.
01:49My first eight years in school, there was nine in my class. Really? It's a very small town. I used
01:56to tell my boys, you can do better. Your dad was in the top 10. But they didn't know that there was
02:06only nine in the class. And I was number nine, believe me. I always say growing up on the farm
02:12and the Marine Corps had so much to do with shaping my life. I had a tough time in school
02:18and struggled a lot. I was 16 and my uncle had a very bad accident at a farm and I was sent there
02:29to really run his farm. I don't want to use working on the farm as an excuse, but I was a sophomore.
02:38So now I'm doing everything, all the chores, all the milking, seven days a week, plus trying to go
02:45to school. So, you know, I kind of fell behind. Because I was a troubled student, I had three
02:52teachers, I'm not going to mention their names, who had told me at different times, you're a loser.
03:00You're going to fail in life. I began to believe it. Pretty soon, I had no self-esteem. I didn't
03:08believe in myself. And then I thought, you know, if I can get through a boot camp in the
03:15Marine Corps, maybe I'm not a loser. I really had this desire to serve. My father served.
03:23The war was really escalating. And I decided I was going to go down and talk to the Marine Corps
03:32recruiter. He said, if you want to enlist, we'll sign you up. I wanted to really see if I could do
03:43this myself. I never told my parents I was thinking about this. I remember that evening after chores
03:51and sitting around the table. And I said, I enlisted in the Marine Corps. Well, my mother
04:02started to cry and my dad never said a word. But what my mom and dad had gone through when my father
04:11was, you know, in a war and captured and missing in action and not my mom not knowing what was going
04:18on, where he was. That was what they were worried about. I know that. Now I'm going off to war.
04:27And six months later, I was in Vietnam.
04:30Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs, the Yance Valor Foundation, and by the Al Lynch Foundation.
04:43Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S.
04:52military veterans. In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic
04:58stress. Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:02At the age of 18, Don Weber volunteered to go to Vietnam.
05:17Like I said, I enlisted and boot camp, you know, was a real challenge. I can remember when I was about
05:25halfway through, I began to feel like, hey, I can do this. I started to believe in myself. I started to have some
05:34self-esteem and confidence, you know. I graduated from boot camp and shortly after, I was in a war. You know, I'm 18 years old.
05:47I fell asleep.
05:51393 days. I remember most of them.
05:55That day that I landed, flew into Da Nang. I land up on the DMZ.
06:04Firebase Contien. As we landed, the choppers started taking incoming. I rush off.
06:12off same time they were throwing body bags dead marines onto it right then i knew i'm standing
06:19here and i'm like this is real and it was just constant time and time and time again and
06:28i realized that
06:32if this is where god intends for me to die this is where i would die and god
06:40if this is where my life's supposed to end i accept that i really did i didn't want to have
06:50this fear and anxiety and things i can't control growing up as a christian
06:57you know we were never encouraged or ever believed about hey taking another life god didn't put us
07:07here i don't believe to want to take another life but you know i'm 18 i don't think it matters what age
07:16and as i walked up
07:20to this individual whose life i just took but i was thanking god it should have been me
07:28it should have been to me thank you god then i walked up and when you die in fear your eyes are
07:41wide open you die peacefully you close your eyes and you pass so i walk up and i looked into this
07:50individual's eyes and they were wide open it was young like i was i got thinking he's got a mother a
07:59family they're never going to see him again yes i was blessed should have been me could have been me
08:08but what if we could have
08:09we could have separately met at a little bar
08:16had a drink together what he believed in what i believed in were probably totally different
08:24would we really want to take each other's life most cases maybe not but you know that went on day
08:30after day after day after day and
08:36the hardest thing for me of of all of that was all the innocent people
08:44you know the nva were ruthless we'd be on a mission
08:51and a little child comes running out with a grenade to throw at your men
08:56operation healing heroes is brought to you by great clips power pole and by st croix rods
09:15well i got a nice big old weed bass here
09:20put it in the stool yeah
09:22we don't get any more luck that might be going in the live well
09:29if you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage follow us on social media and subscribe
09:33to our youtube channel if you're a u.s military veteran in illinois wisconsin michigan minnesota
09:41or beautiful sunny florida log on to our website take a vet fishing.org to find an event near you
09:52no wonder oombard
09:53choosing to walk point to protect his men don weber received two bronze stars
09:59and the purple heart for his heroic actions in vietnam yeah we were ambushed
10:06we were setting up an ambush but we were ambushed and um seven marines died
10:13died, I got hit in my right leg and I remember crawling off, you know, in the
10:22thick jungle grass and it was pretty sad. You know, the enemy came up and the
10:32Marines were dead but made sure they were, that they shot them again. And now I
10:40didn't have my weapon. I was, you know, a lot of pain and I was there that whole
10:49night hiding in, you know, the jungle grass until, because it was so thick, they
10:58couldn't come in and land with the chopper until it was daylight out.
11:03Straight ahead on the top of the ridge line. Go ahead.
11:06The chopper lowered down like a cable and they hooked onto it.
11:19I'm like laying there and it starts to pull me up and they start taking ground fire.
11:28So the chopper takes off, you know, and I'm swinging in the air and I'm like, I was just waiting for a round to go hit me in the back, go through my back or the chopper and there again.
11:45And they finally got me up, got me inside, got out of there.
11:55393 days I spent in Vietnam. Most Marines I served with, most, never got to come back and say goodbye to their loved ones.
12:07Why did I come back? Every day you, you deal with survivor's guilt. The guilt is what took me down.
12:16After the Marine Corps, I never really talked about this part of my life.
12:22Even my own family knows very little about it, but I made some bad choices and for a good part of a year, I was pretty much homeless.
12:35I lived in a car. The burden of the guilt, heavier and heavier and heavier.
12:41I couldn't deal with it. I made bad choices. That's when I realized the worst is behind me. The worst is behind me.
12:52I always say, you know, guilt is to the soul, but pain is to the body. I need to get a job.
13:01Worked my way back to Wisconsin here where I'm from. I had an idea to start my first business.
13:08You know, I'd met Roxy. We got married. We found a way to buy our first home. Had our first child.
13:16And three years later, it was gone. It was repossessed. Interest rates went up to 21%. It was in 81, 82.
13:29And I couldn't even make my interest payments. Now, honestly, I didn't have a house to live in.
13:34He wanted to provide for his family and he thought he was a disappointment to us. He wasn't.
13:39Found an old abandoned farmhouse that I could live in. Didn't have to pay rent. Had broken windows, dirt cellar, rodents in it.
13:49And I told her, I said, hey, I have a place. It's not the best. But I think, you know, for now it's shelter until I get back on my feet. And she followed me.
14:01The timing probably was the most perfect time in our life. Because we had each other.
14:0822-0 believes post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression can heal. We've created two non-clinical interventions to be administered peer-to-peer, healing the root causes of the injury. Go to 22-0.org for more information.
14:31If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org.
14:43Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Thor Industries and by St. Croix Rods.
14:53So, we lost everything. The bank foreclosed. Lost the business. The very first business that I ever got into.
15:09To me, it didn't matter because I knew he would provide for us. He's a Marine.
15:14I can't imagine the courage it took for my dad to face his fears to try to escape a concentration camp.
15:24But he did. If he hadn't done that, I wouldn't be here.
15:28And you know, some of the best things in life you will find are placed on the other side of fear.
15:35You have to walk towards your fears, not away from them.
15:39I know it's easy to say, but you'll be amazed at what you accomplish.
15:46You know, what's there for you. Take risks. Yes, you're going to fail.
15:51Understand that there is nothing wrong with failing.
15:54As long as you learn from it, you become a smarter person, a better person.
15:59Lost my home at one time, but you know what? I didn't turn around.
16:02I kept moving forward, and I'm blessed.
16:05Always face my fears. Always.
16:09Facing his fears, taking risks, and a deep love for his community
16:15has allowed Don and his family to forever change the landscape of La Crosse, Wisconsin
16:21and provide jobs to countless families.
16:26My extended family, it's my employees.
16:29That's how I look at them.
16:31And if there are challenges in their life, and there are,
16:36you don't walk away from it. You're there to help them.
16:39You invest in them. You take care of them. You take care of their families.
16:43I mean, we all have things that happen in our life.
16:48So you want to be there for them.
16:51I've had some who, spouse lost a job or a career, and they thought,
16:57hey, we can't keep our home. No. We're going to help you until you get back on your feet.
17:03You know, the only reason I've had the kind of success I've had, I really truly believe,
17:09because of the people I've been surrounded with.
17:15I believe God determines who walks into your life.
17:19You decide who walks away and who you refuse to let go of.
17:24He's had so many wonderful people walk into my life.
17:28And people much smarter than me.
17:31And I'm blessed that they believed and trusted in my vision and my ideas.
17:36And, you know, they're the ones that, the reason we succeed.
17:43His employees are as equally important as his family.
17:48And to me, life is faith, it's family, serving others, and never giving up, persevere.
17:57But you've got to have faith.
17:59And that faith, believe me, got me through.
18:03He is the most humble person I have ever met.
18:07He just has a base about him of love for people.
18:13Don is very gracious.
18:16He's very, very giving to a fault sometimes.
18:21He just wants to take care of everybody.
18:23His generosity is just unbelievable and has a love for his community.
18:32I believe that every veteran is the heroes to this country.
18:38I think you're absolutely no exception to that rule.
18:43But I think you're even more of a hero for the things you've done in this lifetime.
18:47Well, I'm blessed.
18:48And the fact that you're willing to share it with us.
18:50This is silly for me to give you a token of our appreciation.
18:54But I'd like to just give you this custom St. Croix rod that was built for you.
18:59And it's got all the branches of service on there in our logo.
19:01And it says, custom built for Don Weber in appreciation for your sacrifice and service.
19:06And that's for you.
19:09And I want you to make sure you look official when you catch those fish next time.
19:13So I got you your own Don Weber Operation Healing Heroes jersey with your name on it.
19:18And this is for you.
19:20And I can't say thank you enough for everything that not only you've been through, your family's been through.
19:26And I can't say thank you enough.
19:29I think when you enlist in the military, you don't realize, but it's a lifetime commitment.
19:38And when you've been deployed into combat, that stays with you for a lifetime.
19:46When I leave this earth, I want to be remembered as a very good father, a farm boy and a Marine.
20:01Long after active duty, a Marine's commitment continues positively impacting communities across our nation.
20:10That is the definition of Semper Fidelis.
20:14And that is the definition of Don Weber.
20:18Always faithful.
20:20Semper Fi, Don.
20:22Semper Fi.
20:24If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes, or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode,
20:37log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org, and click on the nominate button.
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