MILTON — The Marine Corps League of Pensacola’s Heroes Among Us speaker series, which kicks off in May, features United States Marine Corps, United States Army and United States Air Force members sharing their stories.
“It’s extremely important to have speakers from war and conflict eras because it captures history,” Santa Rosa County District 3 Commissioner Don Salter, a Marine Corps League member, said.
Salter served as a United States Army paratrooper from 1965 to 1968. He served his last 15 months in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as a combat platoon sergeant and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
“I saw many men lose their lives. Then, in 1965, my brother was killed in Vietnam,” he said. “Anyone who experiences combat, it changes their life. It leaves a scar. They never forget. You’re assured your life is changed forever.”
Veterans may not speak about their service for various reasons — namely the reality of taking another life.
“There’s nothing cool about taking someone else’s life, but in war it’s necessary,” Salter said.
And it’s much different from child’s play, he said, recalling how he wanted to be a soldier as a boy, and would run around with a stick as a gun — this continued into his teens. The Army, he said, trained its infantry and other combat soldiers to take lives in self-defense and to defend fellow soldiers.
Stepping into combat, Salter said, “It’s not a game anymore.”
As for the Heroes series, Salter said that telling these stories is not only good for speakers and listeners.
It also benefits “the men who gave their lives who can’t (speak for themselves),” he said.
WANT TO GO?
What: Heroes Among Us Speaker Series, sponsored by the Marine Corps League of Pensacola
When: Last Fridays, May to October
Where: Pensacola Veterans Memorial Park, 200 S. 10th Ave.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Military veteran speaking tour returns in May