This is an iHeart Podcast. Pro drivers live for race day, but for small business owners, every day is race day. That's why Going Pro with Lenovo Pro matters. One-on-one advice, IT solutions, and customized hardware powered by Intel Core ultra-processors keep your business on the right track. Business Goes Pro?
With Lenovo Pro. Sign up for free at lenovo.com/slash pro. Lenovo, Lenovo. Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Wash away your worries with Anibay.
AniBay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just $699. Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slip covers made with performance fabric. Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime.
Shop washable sofas.com for early Black Friday savings up to 60% off site-wide, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping or restocking fees, every penny back. Upright now at washable sofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people. If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little.
NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America. Mm.
With Black Friday savings at the Home Depot, you can get up to 40% off, plus up to an extra $1,000 off select appliances like LG, America's most reliable line of appliances. Check out the newest LG refrigerator with new mini craft ice straight from the dispenser. Shop Black Friday savings on Select LG appliances, plus, get free delivery now at the Home Depot. Free delivery on appliance purchases of $396 or more. Offer about $11.5-123, U.S.
only. See Store Online for details. Hear that? That's what it sounds like when you plant more trees than you harvest. Work done by thousands of working forest professionals, like Adam, a district forest manager who works to protect our forests from fires.
Keeping the forest fire-resistant synonymous with keeping a forest healthy, and we do that through planting more than we harvest and mitigate those risks through active management. It's a long-term commitment. Visit WorkingForests Initiative.com to learn more. And we return to our American stories. Up next, a story out of Abilene, Texas.
From the best storyteller in Abilene, and maybe one of the best storytellers in the country. And we're talking about our frequent contributor, Jay Moore. and he's been a regular here at Our American Stories for some time. Today, he shares the story of a personal hero, a man with one eye. Take it away, Jay.
Well, I think we all have those people who, for one reason or another, is someone that we claim as a personal hero. And one of those for me is a guy named Dennis Holt. My fellow Americans, and my fellow citizens of the world community. I ask you to share with me today The majesty of this moment. Yeah.
Four months after President Nixon took office in January of 69. He went on television to really lay out what his peace plan was going to be for ending the war in Vietnam. I've asked for this television time tonight to make public a plan for peace. that can end the war in Vietnam. The offer that I shall now present On behalf of the government of the United States and the government of South Vietnam, With the full knowledge and approval of President Chu, is both generous and far-reaching.
And in his broadcast, he called for U.S. and North Vietnamese troops to just both pull out simultaneously from South Vietnam over the next 12 months. At the time of his talk, U.S. troops were at their highest level, over 540,000, I think, were in South Vietnam. But ultimately, the leaders of North Vietnam are going to reject his peace plan.
But that same day, North Vietnamese troops were pressing an attack on several South Vietnamese villages and U.S. bases. It really was one of the most wide-ranging assaults that they had since the Tet Offensive of 1968. But South Vietnamese troops and American troops all across the country were fighting back. And one of the persons, one of the guys who was in the fight that day on May the 14th of 1969, was Dennis Holt.
I actually met Dennis nine years later, which was in 1978. I was a high school senior and I was working for my dad who was a home builder and Dennis worked for him and he oversaw the construction efforts. And so we spent a fair amount of time together. We would drive from job to job, and occasionally we would have lunch together. I think I was just 17, barely on the edge of adulthood, while Dennis was 31, and in my eyes, I saw him certainly as a grown man and certainly someone who was awfully easy to like.
One of the first things you notice about Dennis is that he smiles a lot and also that he has an eye patch over his left eye. and so one day I decided to ask him how it was that he came to lose his eye. In a pickup truck, we're heading south on a street in Abilene. when Dennis told me what happened on May the fourteenth of nineteen sixty nine at a place near Nguyen Ba Denh, which is known as the Black Virgin Mountain. It's an area northwest of Saigon and it was really a perennial hot zone during the Vietnam War.
Anyway, Dennis is a native of Abiling. He went to elementary school here. He went to junior high here. He was a Little League All-Star. He attended.
North Park Baptist Church. And he was a member of the Aboy High Class of 1965. While he was there, he was the student council vice president. His senior year, he was the quarterback of the Abilene Eagle football team. The following graduation, he enrolled in a local college, McMurray College, and he was going to class during the daytime and he was working at the Timex plant here in Abilene.
at night trying to just earn enough to pay for school. It was during his junior year that he really ran out of money, and then, of course, he was out of school, and the draft board came calling.
So Dennis entered the Army on May the 15th, 1968. And by October, he had landed at the U.S. air base there, Tonsan Newt Air Base, outside of Saigon. He was a GI in the 25th Division, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, a group that's often referred to as Triple Deuce. Dennis was just 21.
Three days, though, before Nixon had gone on TV back in May of 1969, the North Vietnamese troops unleashed the surprise rocket attacks. Throughout the country, and it resulted in some of the most intense fighting of the war. But in response to those attacks, Four infantry companies were sent out to recon an area that was called the Crescent. B-52s had just spawned the area. and Dennis's squad was sent out on reconnaissance and Along with his squad was a photographer from the Associated Press.
Every platoon is supported by what's called an APC or an armored personnel carrier. They all have a top-mounted .50 caliber machine gun.
Some of the platoon squads named theirs, and Venice's was dubbed the Phantom. A lot of times, though, the troops. Walked rather than ride inside the APC.
So very often it's just the driver. and the topman and gunner who were aboard that vehicle. But as Dennis's squad moved through the jungle that day, the APC driver hit a tree and a branch fell. it landed on the gunner, and it broke his arm.
So someone needed to step up to man the machine gun, and Dennis has told me before that an unwritten rule in the Army is never volunteer for anything. But he volunteered. And he climbed up into the gunner spot on the Phantom. And the rest of the afternoon was tense, as you can imagine, but nothing really happened. Until word finally came that they were to head back to their support base.
In true deforme, as they started in that direction, is when the North Vietnamese launched their ambush.
Okay. The men of Dennis's squad were caught though. They were sandwiched between the trailing APC and the North Vietnamese Army, so it was making it impossible for Dennis to fire his machine gun at the enemy without possibly hitting his own men.
So he began firing into the trees, hoping to hit snipers. You know, he's just a kid from Abilene, Texas. He had never been farther from home than El Paso. And suddenly on a Wednesday afternoon in May of 69, he's halfway around the world. He's in a sweltering jungle.
He's manning a machine gun in a full-fledged, honest and goodness, real-life war. Both sides are just frantically trying to kill the other in order to keep themselves alive.
So Dennis was firing back in a storm of adrenaline. And then his world went black. At the time, Venice didn't even have all the details of that day. He wouldn't fully learn what occurred on May 14th of 1969 until he began attending triple-deuce reunions back in 2012. The dentist lost his eye and really came within a literal inch of losing his life.
when another APC gunner, who was located quite some distance away, squeezed the trigger on his machine gun. And that 50 caliber bullet, which is a half inch wide piece of lead moving at like 3,000 feet per second, it pierced an ammo box, it went through the protective armor on the APC and it hit Dennis on the left side of his head. and it crossed him his eye. He told me that as he drifted in and out of consciousness, the medics quickly began bandaging his head to stop the blood loss. The Associated Press photographer who was with them raised his camera and took a photo.
Uh it shows two medics who are cradling Dennis's head. There as he's lying on the ground in the Vietnamese jungle, the picture ran and the stars and stripes. The medics strapped Dennis to a rescue basket attached to the outside of a helicopter and he was evacuated to the very nearest field hospital where that treatment kept him from breathing to death. After he was stabilized he would leave Vietnam, he would go to Japan for more care, and then he would be taken to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Within just a few months of being discharged from Brooke, Dennis married a girl in 1970 that he had been friends with at Ably High.
Her name was Linda. She often wrote to him while he was in Vietnam. They moved to the Dallas area, but returned to Abilene in 1978. They bought a house here near Cooper High School. and it was there that they raised their two daughters, and not soon after that is when I met Dennis.
I asked him if he thinks much about Vietnam these days, and He smiled and he said, you know, every morning when I put this eye patch on, It struck me. That for more than five decades, Dennis has lived with Vietnam, but he feels fortunate. Fortunate that he came home. that he was able to move forward. And I think all that shows in his smile.
While he was in Vietnam, Dennis turned 22. Months later, though, when he was back in Texas, he was asked, What did you get for your twenty second birthday? And his reply was, I got the chance to be 23. November 1st of this year. Dennis turned seventy eight.
He is now a poppy to four granddaughters and one grandson. After 42 years of marriage, Linda passed away in 2012, but Dennis still lives in their home by Cooper. and he is still one of my heroes. And he always will be. Uh And a terrific job of the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery.
and Reagan Habib. And a special thanks to Jay Moore for sharing this story, for telling this story about one of his heroes, his hero. In Abilene, Texas. Dennis Holt. And there are so many stories like this all around our country.
Not the big, glorious hero stories. But just the ordinary ones. The story of Dennis Holt, who went on to live a life. to be a contributor to his community, a model to young men like Jay. And to have kids and then grandkids.
An American hero story, Dennis Holt's story. Ear. on our American story. Pro drivers live for race day, but for small business owners, every day is race day. That's why Going Pro with Lenovo Pro matters.
One-on-one advice, IT solutions, and customized hardware powered by Intel Core ultraprocessors keep your business on the right track. Business Goes Pro? With Lenovo Pro. Sign up for free at lenovo.com slash pro. Ah, greetings from my bath, festive friends.
The holidays are overwhelming, but I'm tackling this season with PayPal and making the most of my money. Getting 5% cash back when I pay in four. No fees, no interest. I used it to get this portable spa with jets.
Now the bubbles can cling to my sculpted but pruny body. Make the most of your money this holiday with PayPal. Save the offer in the app. NS1231, see paypal.com/slash promo terms. Points can be renewed for cash more paying for subject to terms and approval.
PayPal Inc. at MLS 910-457. Woohoo, what a matchup we got, y'all. This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non-stop action, the bed is rocking and the crowd lick, chants echo, drum beating, everybody showing that school pride.
Game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice-cold Coca-Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Mmm, yeah. That taste always hits the right note, just like the Vandair halftime.
And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, smooth colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca-Cola, that's a winning combo. No matter the sport, no matter the yard, everybody knows. Fan work is thirsty work, so grab a Coca-Cola and keep that HBCU pride going. You heard it before many times.
Water is life. But do you know that almost half of the homes on the Navajo Reservation do not have clean running water? With your support, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School is ready to give water to Navajo families.
So we invite you to help provide this precious gift of life to those in need. Contrary to many average Americans, Navajo families survive on just 10 gallons of water per day. You can help support St. Bonaventure's water delivery program by going to stbonaventuremission.org. Want Black Friday prices without the crowds?
Lowe gets it. Shop their early Black Friday deals and beat the rush. $99 is all you need to grab a select seven-foot pre-lit artificial Christmas tree for the holidays. And don't sweat what gifts to get, Dad. They have up to 40% off select tools and accessories going on now.
That's how Lowe's celebrates Black Friday early. Selection varies by location while supplies last. This is an iHeart podcast. Yeah.
