ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Chuck Macaluso, a Vietnam veteran who earned three Purple Hearts, still feels someone was looking out for him from above during the war.
“Because there was a lot of people around me that got killed and I’d be the only one standing and I’d go ‘why is this?’ And I felt guilty,” Macaluso said.
When asked if he thinks there was some hand of God protecting him, Macaluso responded, “Hmm, I don’t know what it was but I would say when I came home from the service I go to church every week now.”
Vietnam taught Macaluso there are no atheists in fox holes. He was 19 and in some of the worst fighting, like the Battle of Khe Sanh. His photos ended up in the biggest magazines at the time including Life and Look.
He came home to a career at Kodak and helped build the Vietnam Memorial at Highland Park, which has 280 bollards with the names of every local American killed in the war. One of them was his best friend, John Stirpe.
“This is John Stirpe’s bollard, my buddy that I grew up with,” Macaluso said.
They met in Boy Scouts and Pioneers and went to Franklin High School. Stirpe died in 1968, two weeks after he was shot.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “What does it feel like to be next to him here?”
Chuck Macaluso: “Brings back memories like we were talking about. Good memories.”
Macaluso still thinks about Vietnam every day, especially the combat part of it.
“You know, losing friends in battle. And people getting killed around you. It changes your whole outlook on life as far as oh, I’d say I got changed by knowing that someone up there was looking over me,” he said.
Berkeley Brean: “What do you want people to think about on Memorial Day?”
Chuck Macaluso: “You’d like them to think about what the day really means. At least take a moment sometime and either say a prayer or if you’re on a picnic with your family, do something that shows you’re doing something that commemorates all these people that were killed.”
The Medal of Honor winners get a blue plate on their bollard at the memorial. Blue is the Medal of Honor color. William Perkins from Penfield was the first to get the medal in Vietnam. The new memorial at the ROC airport will be named after him.
There’s another story at the Vietnam War Memorial about the sacrifice from the village of Holley in Orleans County.
“Eight men from the nearby small town of Holley, New York were killed in Vietnam, the highest number of KIAs per capita in any town in the USA,” Macaluso said.
AI assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses AI
Vietnam veteran Chuck Macaluso reflects on surviving war: ‘I felt someone was looking out for me’ WHEC.com.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Vietnam veteran Chuck Macaluso reflects on surviving war: ‘I felt someone was looking out for me’ )
Also on site :
- NYT Connections Sports Edition Today: Hints and Answers for May 25
- Mounting casualties: Russia and Ukraine exchange fire amid prisoner swap
- Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce break cover after being spotted on date night close to $20 million love bunker