VALLEY — The adjutant of American Legion Post 67 talked about his experience in the Vietnam War, and the post commander thanked two local Kia suppliers for what they do for our few remaining veterans of the Korean War at Monday’s Veterans Day program in Veterans Park.
Sammy Newton said he’d never forget the shock he felt when he got his draft notice in 1968. He had just graduated from Valley High and knew such a notice might mean going to Vietnam and taking part in a war that had gotten really hot with the Tet Offensive. “I asked my father for advice,” he said, “and he told me to follow what my leaders told me, that they had the training and experience to help me through.”
Newton said he was not a big fellow at the time. He stood about five-foot-six and weighed 117 pounds soaking wet.
“I will admit I was plenty scared all through basic training, but it worked out for me,” he said. “A sergeant once asked me where I was from. I told him I was born and had grown up in Alabama. He told me I would do fine, that boys who had grown up in the South had always been around guns and had gone hunting plenty of times.”