Vásquez

Combat Veteran, Veteran Advocate

[Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial @honortheservice]

As we prepare to permanently commemorate world history here are some things you should know:
Take a brief survey as we gauge our ceremony audience size: https://t.co/ahNc16LLPR
Ceremony details: https://t.co/2CzhqrckQS
Get your 35th Anniversary coin here: https://t.co/qoVcQo41mM

[Porterville College @PCollegePirates]

Join us as Welcome Week continues through Thursday!

Get to know the resources we offer. Learn about the helpful programs & services available to you.

Fall festivities for NEW & RETURNING students in the QUAD!

GAMES! SNACKS! MUSIC! GIVEAWAYS!

#StartSmallGOBIG

[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

Source: SuperheroDIY https://t.co/wIhJS88V6o

[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Veterans Affairs @DeptVetAffairs]

🔓New mission unlocked: VET TEC 2.0

Eligible Veterans and active duty service members can use Vet Tec 2.0 to train for careers in fields like software development, data processing, and IT.

Learn more: https://t.co/7bEucWIXAZ

[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

https://t.co/M4yhGXgCCS

[Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial @honortheservice]

The occupation would last for 7 months.
36 years later, we are finalizing the construction of the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
☆ Dedication Ceremony Details: https://t.co/2CzhqrckQS

[Voices From Vietnam @VoicesfromNam]

Joe Hooper was the kind of soldier who was magnificent in combat and a headache everywhere else. Born in South Carolina in 1938 and raised in Washington state, he did a hitch in the Navy, then joined the Army and became a paratrooper. He was brave to the point of recklessness and a discipline problem in garrison, busted down in rank more than once for drinking and brawling. But when the shooting started, there were few men in the entire war you would rather have beside you.

On February 21, 1968, during the Tet Offensive near Hue, Staff Sergeant Hooper was a squad leader in Company D of the 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne, when his company attacked a heavily fortified enemy position dug in along a river. The far bank was a wall of bunkers, rockets and automatic weapons fire. Hooper led his men across that river straight into it, and then he simply did not stop for the rest of the day.

He was wounded early, and he refused to leave. He went bunker to bunker, knocking them out with grenades and rifle fire, sometimes fighting hand to hand. When he saw wounded Americans lying exposed, he ran out through the fire and dragged them back to cover, then went right back to attacking. He was hit again and kept going. Over the course of that one day he personally cleared bunker after bunker and killed a large number of the enemy, more than twenty by the count in his citation, refusing medical treatment the entire time so he could keep leading his men. Only after the position was finally taken did he let anyone treat his wounds.

President Nixon put the Medal of Honor around his neck in 1969. And here is the thing about Joe Hooper. That was not the half of it. Across his tours he was wounded eight times and earned an astonishing rack of decorations, two Silver Stars, six Bronze Stars, eight Purple Hearts, dozens of awards in all. By many counts he stands as one of the most decorated American soldiers in the nation's history, mentioned in the same breath as Audie Murphy and Alvin York.

His story does not have a clean, happy ending, and that is worth telling honestly too. Hooper struggled to come home. The same fearless intensity that made him unstoppable in a firefight did not translate to peacetime, and he battled drinking and a restlessness he could never quite settle. He died in 1979 of a brain hemorrhage at just 40 years old, far too young.

He is buried at Arlington. A soldier who could not always fit the peacetime Army, but who on one long, bloody day outside Hue was as brave as any American who ever lived.

[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

Source: The Mercury News https://t.co/oD6UoLqCCl

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Thank you. https://t.co/jr56pSF5fs

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

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[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

Source: VA History https://t.co/SLnpcN2kXU

[Vásquez @VeTSVisalia]

Stabbing Veterans In The Back The American Legion Not So American https://t.co/2uhRGbVgTD via @YouTube