Vietnam Veteran shares experience returning from war [Video]

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Retired Marine Louie Martinez still has a few things from serving in Vietnam in 1966. Letters, pictures, and two purple hearts earned from a serious arm injury and concussion. What’s not as visible is his PTSD and Parkinson’s caused by chemicals used in warfare. Those also lasted through the decades.

“So you would do it all over again?”

“Yes,” Martinez said.

“Why?”

“Because I’m crazy.”

At the age of 18, Martinez says he led search and destroy missions, and often checked for bombs on local roads. Those operations gave him multiple near-death experiences.

“All of a sudden you see bombs going boom boom boom. It was a daisy chain. Next thing I remember is waking up, and there was a father over me. He was doing the sign of the cross. I told him I’m not going yet.”

Martinez says after the war he was elated to return home to San Diego, but the welcome wasn’t so warm.

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