thedrifter
08-29-07, 01:27 PM
Vietnam Vet receives high school diploma after 40 years
By ELONA WESTON/Special to the Leader
DERIDDER - Frank Hensley Jr. stood proudly with 29 other Louisiana veterans Tuesday and received his high school diploma from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Education in Baton Rouge.
Hensley, 60, was 17 when he joined the Marines and shipped off to war in Vietnam.
He had quit school in the eighth grade to help with the family finances, and was in the thick of war in 1966 when he would have graduated from high school.
Hensley said earning his high school diploma was always a goal of his, but jobs and family priorities always seemed to get in the way.
“I even went to night school, but I never could get that to go through,” he said. “Sometimes I had to work two or three jobs. Family just always got in the way.”
Hensley served in Vietnam from 1965-1966. He was a member of H & S Company, 1st Tank Batallion. He worked in motor transport.
“I got my raising in the Marine Corps,” Hensley said.
Hensley said he wasn't scared to serve, even though he said he recalls “the bullets that sounded like bees.”
“My feeling was that I was just doing what I was enlisted to do,” he said.
Hensley made friends quickly in the Marines. Memories of those friends sometimes creep into his mind.
“I seen lots of them fall,” Hensley said. “That was the hardest part, coming back and knowing they didn't come back. All the things that happened, the things you saw - they're hard to live by.”
One of the battles Hensley fought in was Operation Starlite. It lasted about a week and was the first offensive military action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War. It involved 5,500 Marines
The battle claimed more than 600 Viet Cong and 45 Marines. More than 200 Marines were left wounded.
Hensley got out of the Marines after 13 months spent at combat. He came home and began his adult life.
Hensley, an ordained minister, lives in DeRidder with his wife Charlotte. He performs with the gospel group, The Lord's Ambassadors.
Hensley said he's looking forward to the moment he'll receive his diploma.
“Well, I get to accomplish my last goal,” he said. “I feel it's an honor.”
Ellie
By ELONA WESTON/Special to the Leader
DERIDDER - Frank Hensley Jr. stood proudly with 29 other Louisiana veterans Tuesday and received his high school diploma from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Education in Baton Rouge.
Hensley, 60, was 17 when he joined the Marines and shipped off to war in Vietnam.
He had quit school in the eighth grade to help with the family finances, and was in the thick of war in 1966 when he would have graduated from high school.
Hensley said earning his high school diploma was always a goal of his, but jobs and family priorities always seemed to get in the way.
“I even went to night school, but I never could get that to go through,” he said. “Sometimes I had to work two or three jobs. Family just always got in the way.”
Hensley served in Vietnam from 1965-1966. He was a member of H & S Company, 1st Tank Batallion. He worked in motor transport.
“I got my raising in the Marine Corps,” Hensley said.
Hensley said he wasn't scared to serve, even though he said he recalls “the bullets that sounded like bees.”
“My feeling was that I was just doing what I was enlisted to do,” he said.
Hensley made friends quickly in the Marines. Memories of those friends sometimes creep into his mind.
“I seen lots of them fall,” Hensley said. “That was the hardest part, coming back and knowing they didn't come back. All the things that happened, the things you saw - they're hard to live by.”
One of the battles Hensley fought in was Operation Starlite. It lasted about a week and was the first offensive military action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War. It involved 5,500 Marines
The battle claimed more than 600 Viet Cong and 45 Marines. More than 200 Marines were left wounded.
Hensley got out of the Marines after 13 months spent at combat. He came home and began his adult life.
Hensley, an ordained minister, lives in DeRidder with his wife Charlotte. He performs with the gospel group, The Lord's Ambassadors.
Hensley said he's looking forward to the moment he'll receive his diploma.
“Well, I get to accomplish my last goal,” he said. “I feel it's an honor.”
Ellie