- 2 days ago
Operation Healing Heroes S02E03
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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.
00:33Join our host, Jay Garstecki, as we honor the stories of our true American heroes, one soldier at a time.
00:42The mission today is Operation Healing Heroes.
00:49Brought to you by Great Clips.
00:57A new day dawns on La Crosse, Wisconsin. Perched on the banks of the mighty Mississippi,
01:04La Crosse is home to a Wisconsin native and U.S. Marine, Don Weber.
01:10So you said it's been a number of years since you've been on the river?
01:14Did you fish the river much or no?
01:16My dad did. You know, he would go out. When he had any spare time and he had very little, he'd be out on the river fishing.
01:25Like I said, this has been years. It's just amazing. It's so special. It's calming.
01:32Yeah. I mean, you know, you feel like you're disconnected. Don't you?
01:37I mean, you're right out there. You're disconnected.
01:41I grew up on 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.
01:54Really? It's a very small town.
01:56I used to tell my boys, you can do better. Your dad was in the top ten in his class.
02:04They didn't know that there was only nine in the class.
02:07And I was number nine, believe me.
02:10I always say growing up on the farm and the Marine Corps had so much to do with shaping my life.
02:17I had a tough time in school and struggled a lot.
02:23I was 16 and my uncle had a very bad accident at a farm and I was sent there to really run his farm.
02:32I don't want to use working on the farm as an excuse, but I was a sophomore.
02:39So now I'm doing everything, all the chores, all the milking, seven days a week, plus trying to go to school.
02:47So, you know, I kind of fell behind.
02:50Because I was a troubled student, I had three teachers, I'm not going to mention their names,
02:56who had told me at different times, you're a loser. You're going to fail in life.
03:03I began to believe it.
03:06Pretty soon, I had no self-esteem. I didn't believe in myself.
03:10And then I thought, you know, if I can get through a boot camp in the Marine Corps, maybe I'm not a loser.
03:18I really had this desire to serve. My father served. The war was really escalating.
03:28And I decided I was going to go down and talk to the Marine Corps recruiter.
03:34He said, if you want to enlist, we'll sign you up.
03:40I wanted to really see if I could do this myself.
03:44I never told my parents I was thinking about this.
03:48I remember that evening after chores and sitting around the table, I said, I enlisted in the Marine Corps.
04:00Well, my mother started to cry, and my dad never said a word.
04:07But what my mom and dad had gone through when my father was, you know, in a war and captured and missing in action,
04:16and my mom not knowing what was going on, where he was, that was what they were worried about.
04:23I know that. Now I'm going off to war. And six months later, I was in Vietnam.
04:30Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military veterans.
04:54In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
05:00Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:11At 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.
05:23I can remember when I was about halfway through, I began to feel like, hey, I can do this.
05:31I started to believe in myself.
05:33I started to have some self-esteem and confidence, you know.
05:38I graduated from boot camp, and shortly after, I was in a war.
05:44You know, I'm 18 years old.
05:47Uh, 393 days.
05:53I remember most of them.
05:55That day that I landed, flew into Da Nang.
06:00I land up on the DMZ.
06:02Uh, fire base Contien.
06:06As we landed, the chopper started taking incoming.
06:12I rush off.
06:13Same time, they were throwing body bags, dead Marines onto it.
06:17Right then, I knew I'm standing there, and I'm like, this is real.
06:22Uh-huh.
06:23And it was just constant, time and time and time again.
06:27And I realized that if this is where God intends for me to die, this is where I would die.
06:39And God, if this is where my life's supposed to end, I accept that.
06:46I really did.
06:49I didn't want to have this fear and anxiety and things I can't control.
06:54Uh-huh.
06:55Growing up as a Christian, you know, we were never encouraged or ever believed about, hey, taking another life.
07:05God didn't put us here, I don't believe, to want to take another life.
07:10But, you know, I'm 18.
07:13I don't think it matters what age.
07:16And as I walked up to this individual whose life I just took, I was thanking God.
07:27It should have been me.
07:30It should have been me.
07:31Thank you, God.
07:33And then I walked up, and when you die in fear, your eyes are wide open.
07:43You die peacefully, you close your eyes, and you pass.
07:47So I walk up, and I looked into this individual's eyes, and they were wide open.
07:54He was young like I was.
07:56I got thinking.
07:58He's got a mother, a family.
08:00They're never going to see him again.
08:03Yes, I was blessed.
08:06Should have been me.
08:07Could have been me.
08:08But what if we could have separately met at a little bar, had a drink together?
08:18What he believed in and what I believed in were probably totally different.
08:23But would we really want to take each other's life?
08:27In most cases, maybe not.
08:29But you know, that went on day after day after day.
08:32And the hardest thing for me of all of that was all the innocent people.
08:45You know, the NVA were ruthless.
08:48We'd be on a mission.
08:51And a little child comes running out with a grenade to throw at your men.
08:55Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs, Power Pole, and by St. Croix Rods.
09:09Well, I got a nice big old weed bass here.
09:18Put it in the stool.
09:21Yeah.
09:22If we don't get any more luck, that might be going in the live well.
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09:35If you're a U.S. military veteran in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, or beautiful sunny Florida, log on to our website.
09:43TakeAVetFishing.org to find an event near you.
09:53Choosing to walk point to protect his men, Don Weber received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart for his heroic actions in Vietnam.
10:03Yeah, we were ambushed.
10:06We were setting up an ambush, but we were ambushed.
10:10And seven Marines died.
10:14I got hit in my right leg.
10:16And I remember crawling off, you know, in the thick jungle grass.
10:25And it was pretty sad.
10:28You know, the enemy came up and the Marines were dead, but made sure they were, that they shot them again.
10:37And now I didn't have my weapon.
10:41I was, you know, a lot of pain.
10:45And I was there that whole night, hiding in, you know, the jungle grass until, because it was so thick, they couldn't come in and land with a chopper until it was daylight out.
11:03Straight ahead on the top of the wrist line.
11:05Go ahead.
11:06Oh, I got him.
11:07Below the drain.
11:08Okay, we got the smoke.
11:09Right, babe.
11:10Go get him.
11:11Okay, just stand by, babe.
11:12We're coming in again.
11:13Just stand by.
11:14The chopper lowered down like a cable, and they hooked onto it.
11:19Spires coming up.
11:20About 10 foot off the ground.
11:21Hold your hover.
11:22And I'm like laying there, and it starts to pull me up, and they start taking ground fire.
11:31So 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.
11:43And there again.
11:44And they finally got me up, got me inside.
11:45Got out of there.
11:46393 days I spent in Vietnam.
11:59I was just waiting for a couple of years.
12:00Most Marines I served with, most, never got to come back and say goodbye to their loved ones.
12:08Why did I come back?
12:11Every day, you deal with survivor's guilt.
12:14The guilt is what took me down.
12:17After the Marine Corps, I never really talked about this part of my life.
12:23Even my own family knows very little about it, but I made some bad choices.
12:30And for a good part of a year, I was pretty much homeless.
12:35I lived in a car.
12:37The burden of the guilt, heavier and heavier and heavier.
12:42I couldn't deal with it.
12:43I made bad choices.
12:45That's when I realized the worst is behind me.
12:50The worst is behind me.
12:52I always say, you know, guilt is to the soul, but pain is to the body.
12:58I need to get a job.
13:01Worked my way back to Wisconsin here, where I'm from.
13:05I had an idea to start my first business.
13:08You know, I'd met Roxy.
13:10We got married.
13:12We found a way to buy our first home.
13:15Had our first child.
13:17And three years later, it was gone.
13:23It was repossessed.
13:25Interest rates went up to 21%.
13:27It was in 81, 82.
13:29And I couldn't even make my interest payments.
13:31So 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.
13:38He wasn't.
13:39Found an old abandoned farmhouse that I could live in.
13:44Didn't have to pay rent.
13:46Had broken windows, dirt cellar, rodents in it.
13:50And I told her, I said, hey, I have a place.
13:53It's not the best.
13:55But I think, you know, for now, it's shelter until I get back on my feet.
14:00And she followed me.
14:02The timing probably was the most perfect time in our life.
14:07Because we had each other.
14:1622 Zero believes post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression can heal.
14:21We've created two non-clinical interventions to be administered peer-to-peer, healing the root causes of the injury.
14:27Go to 22zero.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.
14:56So, we lost everything.
15:01The 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.
15:13He'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.
15:25If 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.
15:48Take risks.
15:49Yes, you're going to fail.
15:50Understand that.
15:51There 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?
16:01I didn't turn around.
16:02I kept moving forward, and I'm blessed.
16:05Always face my fears.
16:08Always.
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, you don't walk away from it.
16:38You're there to help them.
16:39You invest in them.
16:40You take care of them.
16:41You 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, hey, we can't keep our home.
17:00No, 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, perseverance.
17:57But you've got to have faith.
17:59And that faith, believe me, got me through.
18:04He 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.
18:20He just wants to take care of everybody.
18:23His generosity is just unbelievable and has a love for his community.
18:33I believe that every veteran is 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.
18:51This 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.
19:08And I want you to make sure you look official when you catch those fish next time.
19:12So 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,
19:24your family's been through.
19:25And 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.
20:02Long after active duty, a Marine's commitment continues positively impacting communities across our nation.
20:11That is the definition of Semper Fidelis.
20:15And that is the definition of Don Weber.
20:19Always faithful.
20:21Semper Fi, Don.
20:23Semper Fi.
20:25If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes,
20:35or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org,
20:41and click on the nominate button.
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