Dave Smith, 73, of Evans City was wounded twice in Vietnam as a young Marine.

But worse than being wounded by explosives thrown at his head and feet by a Vietnamese soldier his unit thought was an ally, he said, was his superiors' refusal to send him back into action,

“I wanted to earn a medal so my mother and father would be proud of me,” Smith said.

Smith graduated from high school in Connecticut on June 15, 1965 and by June 18, he was training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island.

He headed to Vietnam in October, but had to wait until he turned 18 to serve.

On Jan. 1, 1966, he began his first tour of duty in Chu Lau for Air Group 12, working on A4 jets.

He returned to the United States and went back to the jungles of Vietnam a few months later to serve as a machine gunner with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines to fight the Viet Cong.

“I started in Da Nang, then to Yankee Station and everywhere in between,” Smith said.

During intense fighting on New Years Eve, he asked his gunner, who was manning a 50-caliber machine gun, to grab him another box of ammunition when a mortar round went off between the gunner's arms.

“He died in my arms,” Smith said of the Alabama native who had been in Vietnam only three weeks. “He pretty much saved my life.”

Smith took shrapnel in the arm and back, but was not airlifted from his station.

“I think of him every New Years,” he said, choking back the tears that continue to flow after 50 years.

Smith transferred out of H Company and into an action platoon that worked with Vietnamese villagers to try and convince them to fight alongside Uncle Sam and not the Viet Cong.

“The biggest problem was the Marines didn't trust the populous forces,” he said, referring to the natives fighting on the American side. “You didn't know which side they were really on.”

He recalled a young Vietnamese boy living with the platoon because his parents were victims of the war.

The boy was killed when the platoon was hit with mortar fire one night, which was when the Americans discovered he had informed the enemy of the location of all the platoon's guns, military equipment and soldiers.

In March 1968, Smith was more severely wounded by a member of the populous force who threw the explosives at him.

One of his big toes was all but blown off and shrapnel filled his eyes, among other injuries.

In Bethesda Naval Hospital, with doctors telling his parents they weren't sure if his wounds had permanently blinded him, his father, a Navy veteran, shared with his son how proud he was of him.

“That was the first time my Dad told me he loved me,” Smith said.

Today, Smith lives with the post-traumatic stress disorder that can cause nightmares and depression.

“There were times where I was planning my suicide,” he admitted. “We may have left Vietnam, but Vietnam has never left us.”

He relies on the unfailing support of his wife of 51 years, Mary, and his little dog Stella, who is trained to wake him up with kisses if he is struggling in his sleep.

Smith is a member of the American Legion and the Marine Corps League “so I can be around my kind of people.”

Although he has lived five decades since the brutal war that shaped him, Smith thinks of his experiences in Vietnam every day.

And he is proud of his service.

“I'd do it all over again,” Smith said.