and then in 1965 he enlisted in the united states army. now, if you are doing the math, him enlisting in 1965, that was way before the draft for vietnam. the draft for vietnam didn t start until years later in late 1969. he went in there before that by choice, he enlisted in 1965, and then in 1967 he volunteered to be sent to vietnam. he did nearly a year in combat from the spring of 1967 to the spring of 1968. in april of 1968 he earned the silver star, and there was an attack on his battalion command post. he exposed himself to enemy fire, to pull his injured colleagues to safety to give them first aid. he earned the silver star that day, april 1968. it was a thursday in april. and that thursday that he earned the silver star that he went through that hell, he was actually only a few days away from going home, only a few days away from the end of his tour. but four days after that battle for which he earned the silver star, the monday after that thursday a grenade blast too
right now. good evening from new york, i m chris hayes, tonight i m going to play for you a recording of a death threat that was recently called into a republican member of congress. and what precipitated that that threat is that the fact of this member voted for a bill road for bridges, stuff like that, the bipartisan bill, that s the whole reason for the death threat. let s take a step, back think back to about a year and a half ago march of 2020. the once in the century pandemic had just, did we just shut everything down, school, travel, businesses. it hit number happened before. everyone was kind of confused and scared, and the economy was catering americans, they were losing their job by the million, and respond to this crisis, members of crisis came together. the republican controlled senate, and the democratic-controlled house, passed in broad bipartisan fashion, a 2.2 trillion dollar rescue package called the cares act. at the, time everyone knew the package was nec
star, the monday after that thursday a grenade blast took him. it blew off his right arm and his right leg. it s a miracle that that young captain survived it. he was administered 40 pints of blood. that is more than six gallons of blood. he lost his right arm and his right leg in the blast instantly, but within an hour of the grenade going off, they had also had to amputate his left leg as well. he lost his right arm, his right leg, and his left leg. it is almost impossible to believe that he survived. but he survived as a triple amputee. he was 25 years old. by the time he was 28 years old, he had been elected to the georgia state senate. the youngest person ever elected to that body at the time. he served in the georgia state senate. over the course of his career he would also serve as georgia s secretary of state. when georgia democrat jimmy carter was elected to the white house, president carter appointed him to lead the veterans administration. he led the v.a. for four