Today’s Star Spangled Salute honors Vietnam Veteran Ronald Whitcomb. Ronald is just one of the tens of thousand of Veterans that suffers from PTSD and that makes the 4th of July fireworks very difficult for him. Ronald was drafted in 1967 and served in Vietnam as an E5 squad leader and he says the pop pop pop of the fireworks sounds like a machine gun and takes him right back to Vietnam. He starts thinking about the snipers and the explosions take him back to a troubling time. Ronald says at one point he was suicidal. And for Ronald, it’s not just the sound but the smell of the fireworks too. Ronald shares his story with hopes that this 4th of July you’ll keep Veterans like him in mind when shooting of fireworks. Thank you Ronald for your service.
