SOUTH MILWAUKEE, Wis.— A Wisconsin war hero is sharing his story of valor on Veterans Day.
Gary Wetzel is a Vietnam Veteran war hero who saved countless lives as a gunner in a helicopter company.
He’s a man full of stories that you could sit and listen to for hours, but one of those stories sticks out more than others.
It’s the story of how he earned the highest and most prestigious personal military decoration, the medal of honor.
“We were coming in and we have seven troops on the helicopter and they are three top-level, we hear a big bang and kind of a shutter, and we got hit with what they call an RPG, a rocket-propelled grenade. It blew the front of the ship apart and we kind of came to a skidding halt,” Medal of Honor Recipient, Gary Wetzel says.
Wetzel says as he and his team were under fire and many of his fellow troops injured, he immediately got out to help. He says he went to grab the pilot who was badly injured when another explosion hit, essentially taking off Wetzel’s arm.
“I kind of took what was left of this (arm), tucked it inside my pants so it wouldn’t flop around and I had my Thompson and kind of did my John Wayne run back to the chopper because that's where I had my 60s. I remember getting nailed in the leg and being on one knee, but how I got back to the chopper? I don’t know,” Wetzel says.
He continues to explain his story while sitting in his living room. Sharing how he made it back to the chopper and got in his gun well and fought off a wave attack to help save the rest of his team.
“Why I didn’t die, I don’t know. I think He was looking down and said keep the redhead alive…so here I am,” Wetzel says.
Wetzel is known by many as a true soldier, who is honored for his unwavering fight on that day in January day in 1968. His valor is what earned him the medal of honor award from President Lyndon Johnson.
“Every time I put this on, it's a trip. I tell people when I wear this medal I wear it for everybody,” Wetzel says.
Now, Wetzel uses his story and works to inspire others by speaking to young kids and helping to spread positivity to others. He moves around mostly in a wheelchair around his South Milwaukee home but isn’t shy about sharing his stories and all of his memorabilia from over the years.
He says it all reminds him of that day and the sacrifice he made.“When I go to bed I take the war off. You have the micro-segments of the war. When I wake back up I put the war back on and you have some of those thoughts,” Wetzel says.
A true hero, an inspiration, and a medal of honor recipient with a relentless fight he hopes to share with others.
There are only two medal of honor recipients left in the state of Wisconsin. Wetzel is one of them and the other is Kenneth Stumpf from Milwaukee.