As we mark another Veterans Day, I am reminded of the many sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform and by their families. For me, a veteran I recently met is a powerful reminder of those sacrifices as well as what each of us can do to honor those who have given so much to keep us safe.
The veteran is John Philip Baca, who earned the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam. On Feb. 10, 1970, Baca was a 21-year-old specialist fourth class serving in the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division. His unit was operating in Phuoc Long Province, located north of Saigon on the Cambodian border.
Late that afternoon, his heavy weapons platoon and a rifle platoon were assigned to set up a night ambush. They established a position near a trail and set up warning devices – claymore mines with trip wires – along the trail. When one of those mines exploded, a patrol was sent to investigate and became pinned down.
According to his Medal of Honor citation, Baca led his recoilless rifle team through “a hail of enemy fire to a firing position within the patrol’s defensive perimeter.” When a grenade landed amid the patrol, he “unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his own safety, covered the grenade with his steel helmet and fell on it as the grenade exploded.”
Baca absorbed the full force and lethal fragments from the explosion, thereby saving the lives of eight soldiers around him. Two hours passed before he could be airlifted to a hospital. Surgeons saved his life but he lost much of his stomach and intestines as well as pieces of bone and ligament.
Years later, he recalled feeling no pain after the blast, even though he was severely injured. Instead, he said, it was “the most beautiful moment in my life. I could see God.”
On June 15, 1971, he received the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon at the White House. His other decorations include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal and Purple Heart.
Despite having given so much already, Baca has continued giving. In 1990, he returned to Vietnam and worked with former enemy soldiers to build an American/Vietnamese Friendship Clinic near Hanoi. Among the former enemy soldiers was one he recognized. While on patrol at Christmas of 1969, Baca was moving ahead of his unit and surprised a young enemy soldier sitting atop a bunker, his rifle nearby. Baca recalled thinking, “I’m afraid, and there is no one else here. What do I do?” Baca debated shooting the “kid” but took him prisoner instead. “It was like a beautiful Christmas gift,” he later recalled.
Baca now lives in Julian, a rural outpost east of San Diego, with his pet poodle, JoJo, who doubles as a service dog to warn him of an imminent seizure from his war wounds. He spends much of each day working for veterans’ issues and delivering mail, newspapers and supplies to those too aged or infirm to make simple trips to the post office or store.
When my friend, Dakota Meyer, himself a Medal of Honor recipient for his valor in Afghanistan, heard from the American Soldier Network (ASN) that Baca’s aging pickup had broken down, he reached out to Toyota. On Oct. 29, Toyota and the San Diego Toyota Dealers responded by presenting Baca with a Platinum edition Toyota Tundra.
The presentation came as a surprise to Baca. It was made during a Forgotten Sons “Ride to Live” fundraising motorcycle ride to raise awareness and prevent soldier/veteran suicides. Nearly all of the participating bikers are active-duty military or veterans.
Toyota Veterans Association President
Michael Smith, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps in both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, presented the truck, complete with an extended warranty, pre-paid maintenance, and $3,500 in gas cards, to support Baca’s work with veteran and advocacy groups like ASN.
“As a veteran myself, I can truly understand the many perils that John and his fellow troops endured defending our nation,” said Smith. “It gives me great pleasure to present him with this Tundra on behalf of Toyota and its team members across America as just a small token of our gratitude to him for his service.”
State Farm donated a year’s auto insurance and the Nice Guys of San Diego paid the gift taxes. In addition, Baca received a year’s supply of dog food and dog travel accessories for JoJo, thanks to Hills Dog Food, Purina Dog Food and MWI Animal Health.
The Toyota Veterans Association also made a $5,000 donation to the American Soldier Network, a nationwide 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Annie Nelson.
Nelson, a civilian with no military experience but a desire to support U.S. troops deployed overseas in the war on terror, began writing letters to deployed Marines. After a suicide bomber caused the death of one of her pen pals and left another, Corporal Jesse Schertz, badly injured just before Christmas of 2004, she got a request from Schertz to visit him in the hospital in Texas. That visit led Nelson to found the ASN.
The network has no paid staff and is run entirely by volunteers, but it accomplishes a great deal for our wounded warriors. It conducts an annual holiday drive with donors and corporate sponsors to prepare Christmas bags for delivery to the Naval Hospital in San Diego and at Camp Pendleton’s Wounded Warrior Battalion. It also does outreach to homeless veterans throughout the year, providing shoes and food. Its current focus is on preventing suicide among veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates nearly two dozen veterans a day commit suicide.
I’ve always been proud of my long association with Toyota, but never more so than its strong support for veterans. The company and its dealers have gone out of their way to hire veterans and to help veterans and their spouses find meaningful employment.
Toyota has partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation on the Hiring Our Heroes program, which helps transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses find jobs through job fairs, online job postings and mentoring. Toyota and Hiring Our Heroes co-built the Personal Branding Résumé Engine and a companion site for spouses that allows transitioning service members, veterans and their spouses to input information about their military experience and have it automatically translated into civilian skills in a professional résumé they can post on the Resume Engine website for prospective employers to view (www.resumeengine.org for veterans and www.mycareerspark.org for spouses).
There are many ways you can honor the service of our veterans. Let John Baca inspire you.
