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October 1, 2006
Hero SF Soldier and Pacifist Nurse - Forever Allied By War
At the end of 1968, he was a 23-year-old Special Forces sergeant from Pueblo, Colo., who was recruited by the CIA to lead small reconnaissance units of South Vietnamese mercenaries, whose mission was to engage the enemy well beyond any notion of a front line. In the course of 56 extraordinary hours, SF Sergent Drew Dix and the modest commando force he led managed to extricate Maggie O'Brien and eight other USAID civilian workers in the midst of withering fire before going back to free the wife and children of a deputy province chief.
Maggie O'Brien was a civilian nurse from Dorchester, a pacifist who answered President Kennedy's clarion call to service by going to Afghanistan with the Peace Corps. She could have nurtured her opposition to war by pulling a Cindy Sheehan and protesting the war at home. Instead she chose to make a pacifist stand by serving the besieged citizenry in the South Vietnamese province of Chau Doc.
Today, Peter Gelzinis has a piece at BostonHerald.com telling of the story of the very diverse paths that led Medal of Honor winner Drew Dix and Peace Corp nurse Maggie O'Brien to the same bullet-riddled house in Vietnam 38 years ago. You won't want to miss, "Hero GI, Dot Pacifist Forever Allied By War," telling of the nurse and the soldier who met in the middle of hell - and who are still good friends 38 years later.
Cross posted from Hyscience
Posted by Richard at October 1, 2006 10:38 PM
