June 3, 1948 June 24, 2014
I am long overdue in doing this. My cousin Stephen Michael Lynch was a veteran of the disastrous vietnam war serving in the 101st Airborne. He was 4 years younger than me, and we grew up living together at times and no more than a quarter mile apart later until I went away to college. We were close and did a lot together.
In 1964 when I came home from college his mother, my Aunt Silvia had a 1963 Corvette. That summer we raced often. Me in my mother 1963 Chevy Impala Super Sport convertible; Steve in the 1963 Corvette. I never won and twice he was upon 2 wheels going around a corner. During that summer and others Steve worked at G&H Engineering: a speed shop that superbly tuned the 1963 Corvette and also worked on other race cars.
After Steve graduated from High School he soon thereafter got married. The vietnam war was heating up and even though married he was drafted in 1968. Off he went to Basic Training, Advanced Infantry Training and then off to vietnam assigned to the 101st Airborne. Steve was a soldier they called a grunt. They flew in helicopters, were dropped off in the jungle and would search for the enemy for a couple of weeks.
On one of these patrols, they were over run by the enemy. A rocket propelled grenade landed in his foxhole killing 2 other soldiers and blowing off Steve foot above the ankle. He has the presence of mind to put on a tourniquet and a MedEvac helicopter carried him to a Navy hospital ship offshore. After being stabilized,he was flown to Alaska and then to Valley Forge VA hospital in Pennsylvania.
A week after he was hit, his Father (my uncle) and I drove to the VA hospital to see him. This was the most heart-breaking place I ever have been. Just about every soldier was 18-20 years-old and an amputee. There was BK for a below knee amputation. AK for above the knee. AE above the elbow. BE below the elbow, Some had one leg, no legs or one arm or no arms and terribly some had no legs or arms. Many were in great pain and crying and we were also crying. While recuperating Steve had several operations that trimmed the bone back more an more and he retained his knee joint. All the time he was heavily sedated with Morphine.
Steve's life thereafter was series of sadness. His wife left him along with his young daughter. He spiraled in an out of heroin drug addiction for decades. On June24, 2014 he overdosed on heroin and fentanyl and was finally at peace. I still miss him. GOD Bess him.