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00:00welcome to operation healing heroes join me today in Ashland Wisconsin as we honor
00:08husband and wife army veterans Tom and Mary Hanke these are the faces of heroes many still
00:18bearing the invisible wounds of war PTSD and trauma I left Vietnam but Vietnam never left me
00:30that's how I'm living why did I come back why are they gone and I'm not you know what have I done
00:37to deserve to be here our mission is listening and hearing helping and healing for those who sacrificed
00:49and those who continue to sacrifice the mission today and every day is operation healing heroes
01:00brought to you by great clips Ashland Wisconsin on the banks of Lake Superior is home to US Army
01:15and Vietnam War veterans Tom and Mary Hanke you must be Tom and Mary yes we are well welcome thank you for
01:25going out and showing me how to fish today well you got to take us you got to take us to the fish
01:32I'll try also very nice to meet you nice to meet you too guys ready to go do some fishing sure all
01:38right let's all ready for fishing the northern Wisconsin cold and wind would make for a tough
01:44bite on this day and after a challenging morning on the water the Hotel Chequamegon provided a warm
01:52respite from the elements Tom and Mary it's great to be back in Ashland Wisconsin with you hearty
01:58Midwesterners being from the Chicagoland area I love it up here and it's absolutely beautiful it's God's
02:04country these northern woods of Wisconsin up here in Ashland Wisconsin we love it because of its I guess
02:12the small town flavor we can go to different places in town and will almost always find someone
02:42these are our friends and neighbors we know a lot of them you know we'll walk into store say Walmart and we don't know you know at least a quarter of the people in there you know yeah you know it's it's a rare day we do a lot for our for our community but to partner with an organization like Operation Healing Heroes it goes beyond just sponsoring an episode the episode is great for the veteran community to to learn that there is a
03:12help out there knowing that it is nationwide going to be broadcasted and someone else that may be on the fence of getting help or not and they see an episode like that means the world to us not only that we're supporting the people right here at home but also nationwide so it's not very often that we get to interview a husband and wife who both served in Vietnam right right and I learned just recently that you guys are only nine days apart in age yes to the same year which is amazing right
03:42right so we don't we don't get that very often but tell me what what made you want to go into the army when my father was in the army was one of six children and I wanted to make my father proud of me so I went into the service because my brothers were not able to serve how about you Tom I was drafted you know I never thought about any other branch of service and well I was working at Mercury Outboard Motors
04:09in Fond du Lac you know the work of daylight was kind of drudgery and then about that time that's when I got my draft notice and the draft notice actually does come from the president of the United States
04:22do you remember receiving that and what was that like for you and your parents I kind of knew it was going to be coming
04:29so during the Vietnam War it was on the news every night and the American people were very aware of the weight that was being put onto you did you feel that pressure
04:40I felt a lot because a lot of these guys were the same age as I was and I was sending them to a war zone so I had a lot of feelings about that
04:52yeah how do you deal with something like that well you have to do your job and make sure it's done properly and if you did it your job properly you could pray for the troops and hope that they would come back
05:09Mary has talked about you know that haunting her the fact that some of these troops never came back and I tell her she had no control over that
05:19you know she was just doing what she had to do and preparing them you know being sent overseas that's that's what she was called to do she did it
05:32Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips Enbridge and by Northern Clearing
05:47Operation Healing Heroes is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our US military veterans in addition we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress your donation will help heal our heroes
06:07were your parents proud of you when you enlisted into the military I think they were proud my dad never really showed real much emotion
06:15no huh but I know my mother was very proud of me to go into the service so let me ask you this why do you think your dad never talked about his time in service because it wasn't easy
06:28did you know as a kid that dad struggled with PTS or anything like that post-traumatic stress I never really you know we didn't know what that was back then
06:37yeah but I never really noticed I know that you know he would have times when he would flare up and stuff like that but I was amazed you know what I hear about now how they could even come back after what they've all experienced and still lead a normal life
06:55but my father was always good with us kids we went camping we did fishing you know we were always outdoors
07:02I wonder if that was part of his healing process right being in the outdoors because we know that the outdoors has amazing healing powers you know it's and that's why we do Operation Healing Heroes in the outdoors right whether we go fishing or we go camping whatever it might be we got to keep everybody in the outdoors because the basement's not the answer we know that right so I wonder if that was all part of his healing process all
07:24you don't know Mary enlisted at 19 years old so that one of the six children her parents had raised would have served their country most of all Mary wanted to make her father proud my girlfriend and I we enlisted together and we went down to Milwaukee that's where we went out of we got on the plane my girlfriend and I were both wearing high heels and you know really you know
07:54so it was kind of should we had done this or not you know and when we got down to Chicago the plane was kind of waiting for us to get on the plane so when we got down to Atlanta and then we had to board a little plane to get to to Fort McClellan
08:13is that where you did your boot camp yeah I did my boot camp and my AIT there and that and so when we got to when we got off the plane our luggage wasn't there so a couple days later they took us to the airport to check to see if our luggage had gotten there and my girlfriends their luggage got there but mine never arrived but all my memories all the special things I packed
08:43my mother was my mother was my mother was a knitter and she knitted me a beautiful sweater and I was so proud that I was going to be able to wear that
08:50oh
08:51they never got it I had absolutely nothing when everybody was able to start putting everything in their foot lockers and they had stickers in there where everything belonged but I had nothing to put in there so I was kind of sad
09:07and so I was maybe a little teary-eyed you know my our drill sergeant walked by she grabs me and takes me into her office thinking I was homesick and everything and she says are you homesick do you want to go home I said I'm not thinking about going home so why are you crying I said because I don't have anything to put in my foot locker
09:30operation healing heroes is brought to you by great clips recon boats and by Suzuki Marine
09:50so the brochure said they were fishing this lake you guys know anything about that seagulls are watching you are they yeah they'll be laughing soon make sure you do it right
09:59if you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel
10:09if you'd like to learn more and go deeper into the subject of healing tune into the all new operation healing heroes podcast feel the heal
10:17hear from veterans first responders doctors nonprofit leaders and gold star families as they share powerful stories of hope healing and resiliency tune in and feel the heal
10:29and bridge is committed to our partnership with operation healing heroes it's such a valuable service that they provide in respecting and honoring and supporting our veterans we're happy to be a part of something that provides that respect for the heroes that made these sacrifices for the good of our country
10:54do you remember when you got your papers and actually having to go down and go through the process that Mary was talking about
11:01oh yeah I also went through the POR board it was at Fort Rucker Alabama and there was a hundred of us probably at least went into this room for testing at the end of those tests they call out names for additional testing and mine was one of the names that was called
11:22found out later it was a test to see if you were qualified for officer candidate school I think I was like one or two points short of qualifying for officer candidate school but they offered me the opportunity for aircraft maintenance school at the time I thought well I don't really know what the army has for you know aircraft but I was soon to find out
11:47uh-huh are you happy you did that I guess just the fact knowing that you know I'd be at it probably be at an airfield
11:54somewhere instead of you know walking around out in the jungle a little easier on my mind so was it did it turn out to be what you expected it to be well not really I was going over to Vietnam as a helicopter repairman slash crew chief crew chief is
12:14the one that you know flew in the aircraft so I had it I had to have a flight physical before I could go over there I remember very distinctly one part of it was this medic drew your blood and he looked at he looked me in the eye he had come back from Vietnam he looked me in the eye and he says you better take a good look at it because pretty soon it's going to be splattered all over the inside of a helicopter
12:41we landed we landed at Benoit air base and it was like one in the morning when we landed there there was these other troops that were lined up you know to go home
12:52and you know as as young recruits you know we didn't really know what was going on but some of these guys were yelling at us you know things like you know run while you still can you know so
13:06right there you know it got us pretty scared because we still didn't know what to expect
13:13the National Medal of Honor Museum is dedicated to safeguarding and celebrating the legacy of the Medal of Honor and its recipients learn more at mohmuseum.org
13:31If 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
13:44Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries St. Croix Rods and by Thorn Brothers
13:56I was assigned to a unit it was down in the Mekong Delta at an Army Airfield Sergeant there told me that I was going on to Vin Long he said they called it Rocket City
14:13He said because they were always getting hit with rockets there so that's why I ended up in Vin Long I went into headquarters there they asked me if I would consider working at headquarters they said they had all kinds of people in my military occupational specialty you know coming through and they said but they weren't on the strength of my test scores they said I had really scored high so I decided that you know I would try it you know
14:42So I ended up working at squadron headquarters and administration which was pretty far removed from what I'd been trained for that decision that I made could have very well saved my life it's hard to say part of my duties at headquarters was taking in casualty reports they would be called in from the individual troops anytime you had a casualty fatality
15:11They had to you know send a letter home to the next of kin and I'd have to review those to make sure they were absolutely perfect you know before they could go on so that was kind of the one of the harder parts of you know what I did so I'm assuming that you probably had a large number of those reports that you had to send home and how did that weigh on you I don't know that that's haunted me you know later on in life I think about the
15:41those people I think about those people I try to you know live in their stead you know kind of live maybe what they would have done I kind of made a promise when I came back that you know if I didn't make it back which I did that I were trying to make my corner of the world a little better place to be and that's what kind of drives me every day I like that and I Mary helps me with that all the time
16:10As it turned out I ended up staying in Vietnam for a total of two and a half years because I kept requesting six months extensions I did three of those and then it was time for my time and service to be up
16:27After my two and a half years I caught a plane out of Vietnam we call them freedom birds and I processed out in April of 1972 in our unit the time they were over their squadron size unit we had taken 83 killed in action casualties and a greater far greater number of wounded in action
16:55When I came back after my enlistment was up you see these people going through everyday life you know and it seems so mundane and I'm thinking in my head people don't you realize
17:13There's there's American troops in Vietnam that are dying and you're just going about your everyday life as if nothing's going on so that part of it was hard for me to deal with
17:25In 1972 I was 24 and I met Tom at work he was up on a ladder and he was working above me that was the first time that we ever set eyes on one another
17:40Was it love at first sight or was it like a slow burn?
17:45Slow burn
17:45I don't know if it was a slow burn maybe it was a little faster for me I think
17:51I think the male reacts a little faster sometimes
17:55I think that's just the male physiology
17:58I am very proud of her because there's not a whole lot of women that could have taken the initiative you know to do what she did
18:09You know especially at that time in our history I'm sure she didn't know what the outcome would be
18:16You know there was a possibility that they could have ordered her to go to Vietnam
18:21But yeah I don't tell her that that I'm proud of her although I am
18:27You know there's a lot of things I fall short on you know like telling her that I love her
18:33I was proud to go into the service and if they would have needed me again I would have gone back gladly
18:41Tom and I have been married 46 years and we still are doing our part
18:48We're still serving
18:49One of the special things that we do is we serve on the honor guard for military funerals
18:57I think that kind of grew out of us both being in the American Legion
19:04Me being the commander for the American Legion in Ashland and her being my adjutant
19:09Although I call her the agitator fondly though
19:13But yeah serving in the honor guard is a very special thing
19:18Again I want to just say thank you both for sharing your story with us and taking the time to do this with us
19:24We certainly appreciate it even though we didn't catch many fish yesterday
19:27We'd like to give you guys a little gift to say thank you so we've got custom rods for you
19:34These are St. Croix rods that were built by Thorne Brothers and this this Tom is yours and Mary this one's yours
19:40And it just says in appreciation of your sacrifice and service
19:43And it has your name on there and it's got all the branches of service along with our logo and the American flag
19:49I'm going to make you cry
19:49I don't want to make you cry
19:51Thank you it is special
19:54But I also want to make sure that you guys look official so you have your own Operation Healing Heroes jerseys
20:00With Mary Hanky on the front and Hanky thank you so much Tom
20:05Here's yours
20:07Now you guys are going to even if we don't catch any fish you're going to look like you know what you're doing
20:11Because that's what we did yesterday we looked like we knew what we were doing
20:14Can I give you guys a hug?
20:15Oh definitely you can
20:16Thank you so much
20:17I appreciate you more than you know
20:18Well thank you for taking me
20:21I'm going to hug me too
20:22I am
20:22I am
20:23Thank you both so much
20:24We certainly appreciate you
20:26If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes
20:34Or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode
20:37Log on to our website
20:39OperationHealingHeroes.org
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