Paul Harvey and 'the rest of the story'...

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 ... one of those unforgettable moments in life.

More than three years later, I discovered my stud father had further sealed his unquestioned Manly Man status...

... during Tet.

Wow!

Sergeant First Class Ted Daw is officially a War Hero.

Staff Sergeant Daw, after ensuring his FOB's security perimeter was completed before hitting the sack (actually the hard ground), was looking forward to a few hours of shuteye before 0-dark-thirty.

The sweltering heat, however, and in contrast to a frigid winter in North Carolina for his family, made sleeping elusive.

Bug Juice took care of the insects, but it was so blasted hot and humid.

In an effort to acquire that precious rest, my father removed his jungle uniform jacket, retaining his T-shirt.  

So much better...

He draped his jungle jacket over concertina wire adjacent to a machine gun position and fell asleep.

As previously recounted, a battalion sized element of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong - with Chinese backing - assaulted SSG Daw's FOB with mortars and small arms fire.

The rude awakening by these communist bastards was rewarded by my father's provision of egress for his soldiers, via 800 rounds per minute of 7.62 mm ammo, and the killing or capture of 245 of the invaders.

SSG Daw's heroic actions that evening bought enough time for Hueys to rescue many of the soldiers, including my father.

As my father was sprinting for the waiting Huey for his extraction, he encountered a badly wounded NVA soldier.

Had I been presented with that same situation on the way to the chopper, the enemy would have had to fend for himself.

Not the Sergeant Major.

SSG Daw was a Christian before anything; he threw the wounded enemy soldier over his shoulder and tossed him into the waiting Huey.

Saving the man who just tried to kill him was not only the Christian thing to do...

... saving his life would also provide extensive intel on the enemy's operations.

The body of a burned-beyond-recognition ARVN soldier was covered with a US Army jungle jacket found draped on concertina wire next to the burned corpse.

SSG Daw was quite surprised himself when the disbelieving young corporal, stammering, uttered:

"YOU'RE DEAD !!"

Paymaster:

"This ain't for you, as  you have been declared KIA!"

  As a Special Operator, he was initially assigned to Fort Bragg as his return assignment. 

Hey, guys, look -

I'm not dead!

Somewhere in the review process at Fort Bragg, the top brass became aware of my father's situation.

 SSG Daw's stellar military record and heroic actions during Tet earned him assignment, instead, to a most prestigious institution...

 My Mother was one of legions of American housewives, mothers and grandmothers who utilized dress patterns in order to custom make their dresses...

... for themselves and their daughters.

Denise and Dawn were proud to wear our Mother's beautiful creations.

 1972 and the opening of the much anticipated Northgate Mall...

... and Mary Lester Fabrics wanted in.

My Mother's performance, as reflected in her Columbia sales, prompted the company to offer management of their brand new flagship Northgate store.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Mall_(Chattanooga,_Tennessee)

... I finished my senior year at Central High while managing a Royce shoe store at night .

I became quite adept at averting my eyes when the inevitable panty shot occurred.

Those miniskirts proved to be disadvantageous, especially with those gogo boots.

Yes, Martha, I most certainly did avert my eyes!

The shoe store's closure found me at Shoney's flipping burgers until graduating.

I didn't skip classes; I even took extra credit 0700 calculus classes.

My parents didn't raise a lazy ne'er-do-well.

The crest of domestic sewing that had been strong for decades started to diminish shortly after Northgate opened.

Although foot traffic was high in Northgate, fabric sales started sliding.

Mary Lester's competitor, Hancock Fabrics, was also instrumental in the closure of my Mother's store.    

Its closure, however, opened a new door of opportunity for my Mother.

She was now able to fulfill a desire she had held for years - become a Registered Nurse.

This remarkable lady did, indeed, earn  her BSN at a highly regarded undergraduate program at UTC.

I believe my Mother's class was, in fact, UTC's first class.

This knucklehead training to be an infantry officer (here in Evacuation of the Sick and Wounded) and his beautiful Mother training to be a Registered Nurse....

... both enrolled at UTC!

Thanks, again, God.

This military wife, mother and nurse would accomplish so much.

As a military wife, Joyce Lilla Daw, RN, would assume head nurse positions in a number of VA hospitals.

Upon the Sergeant Major's retirement and return to Chattanooga, where he joined the Ooltewah High School JROTC cadre, Mrs. Ted Daw assumed the position of head nurse on Erlanger's West 7, among others.

Further, Dawn earned her Masters in pediatrics.

Four of the Daw family paid tuition at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

And proud of it...

Actually, the Army paid for mine.

I did, however pay my own tuition for dental school...

... because the Demoncrats hated the military so much, they removed the GI Bill that otherwise would have paid for my postgraduate education.

Replaced a few years later by the Montgomery Bill, I was not eligible for those benefits.

To Jimmy Carter and those Demoncrats, and quoting Gutfeld!...

...  "You can't hate these people enough!"

 God enabled this otherwise highly unlikely event as a reward for these remarkable men's faith, in the face of life and death...

... and  unquestioned heroism.

Decades later...

I suspect SSG Daw's REMF battalion commander felt guilty after the carnage rendered in the ambush of his point platoon.

SSG Daw had earned a respite from the battlefield; a couple of days in Saigon at a popular GI watering hole was in order.

Staff  Sergeant Daw was about to meet a very special Green Beret .

 ... intercepts those repeated requests from ARVN and US forces pinned down in an ambush.

He promptly dispatches the Cobra, aka The Snake, saving my father's platoon from certain death. 

My father bought him a beer.