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LA VISTA, Neb. (AP) — A Vietnam veteran with a terminal brain tumor has received an Honor Flight salute at his home in a suburb of Omaha.
Local criminal defense attorney James Martin Davis knew that 65-year-old Walter Roberts wouldn't be able to participate in an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., for Nebraska Vietnam veterans in June, the Omaha World-Herald (http://bit.ly/1OgRC63 ) reported.
Davis helped Patriotic Productions, which sponsors the flights, to bring the honor to Roberts' home in La Vista on Wednesday. They presented him with a red Nebraska Vietnam Flight polo shirt, a ball cap and pin, an Army branch insignia sign and a combat engineer pin.
Roberts joined the Army in 1967, when he was 17. He served in two combat tours in Vietnam.
During his time in Vietnam, he suffered four bullet wounds in his legs, a bayonet in his left wrist and 168 pieces of shrapnel in his back. He was also soaked three times with Agent Orange, the toxic chemical that U.S. warplanes dropped as part of a campaign to kill jungle foliage that hid the enemy.
Despite his wounds, Roberts said his Vietnam memories are only of his buddies who didn't come home.
"All the rest, it doesn't matter to me," he said.
Eve Roberts said her husband was troubled by PTSD for many years.
"He was in and out of work and in and out of rehab," she said. "He did a lot of drinking, had a lot of DUIs. He went to a lot of counseling and finally got cleaned up and his life on track."
Eve and two dozen other friends and family members are planning to keep their banquet reservations for Honor Flight participants on the eve of the event, no matter what the future holds.
"Everybody loves him," she said.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, http://www.omaha.com
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