"And Sergeant Fury said "I need two volunteers two go up and get a dead Marine. 
He's up about 15 meters." So, me and Wyeth said we'd go and we did. We ran up 
there. And um, he, he was just laying face down. And I grabbed his shoulder. 
And Wyeth grabbed the other shoulder and we started pulling him. When we pulled
 him, ah, my body was down like this and I got shot. I think the bullet went 
off the flak jacket of the dead Marine from K 39 and spinned into my throat.
 And uh, got hit right there and I just couldn't breath in or out. I was just. 
And a piece of it broke and hit into my shoulder. I was just; my whole arm was 
paralyzed. And I couldn't move and I gave myself up for dead. I just couldn't 
move, breath in or out. And I was laying there next to the dead Marine. Wyeth 
got shot twice through the leg. And he was back down there. I was just up there 
with no one. I couldn't breath in or out for at least over a minute. So, I gave
myself up for dead and um...I just... thought about home. I thought about how I was 
gonna die. Couldn't get that breath in or out; nothing. 

And um…I saw the kitchen of my house. I saw the Marines come in to the house. 
My mother was crying. And umm, there was a calendar on the wall. It was always
 there when I was a kid. Sacred Heart, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And I saw it,
 just; saw it come off the wall. Came down towards me. Here I am in Vietnam, 
laying on my face. But it came down towards me. I let out a yell; just one more 
last chance to get a breath. (Makes a short gasping sound) And I yelled out 
and I was able to get a little air in. I was choking and a little more had came in.
 And I didn't know it at the time but I had a broken neck: C7 and T1, Cervic 7, 
Thorasic 1; fractured neck; where the bullet went in. I felt it spin and end up in 
back of neck where it still is today. And the shrapnel that broke off, I ‘d say that 
was part of thebullet. When it hit the flak jacket of the Marine it came up there 
and spinned in to there. And um…God let me have my life back."