Michael Moore, who comes from a military family, is proud to have been a part of the U.S. Marines. He carries his red elite Force Recon card in his wallet, ready to flip open and show. Force Recon is to the Marines what the Seals are to the Navy.
According to Moore, it was that special training he received that helped him survive Vietnam.
The now 67-year-old Moore was 19 years old when he went into the military. He spent his 20th and 21st birthdays in Vietnam. Moore was part of the Bravo Battery 1st Battalion 12th Marines when the Vietnamese attacked every military base at the same time.
According to Moore, he was there during the worst three months of the Vietnam War, March through May 1968.
“I have 80 percent PTSD, I have 30 percent [multiple sclerosis] from Agent Orange and my ears are ringing all of the time from the artillery,” Moore said somberly. “I wish none of us had to experience it. It’s like it happened yesterday, all of the time. I go to bed at night and I have to take drugs to go to sleep, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night freaking out and I have to get up and go for a walk. It’s never ending.”
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“Turning people into vapor doesn't make you feel good, I did it 93 times,” Moore said, then paused. “Nothing but pain, and um, the guilt trip because I’m home and 58,000 soldiers never made it home, so the realization that I’m in my late 60s and I’m still here. I owe everything to those guys, everything.”
When you have people die for you, you never forget it, Moore said.
Moore was a forward observer and explained it was as simple as finding targets and blowing them up.
“I had walls when I was a Marine - I just put walls up and you didn't feel anything,” Moore said with deep emotion in his voice. “Now I feel everything and it hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts! War’s a nightmare, nobody wants to see it.”
Then he added: “If you want to be free, then I guess we have got to do it.”
The Vietnam veteran lives in Carlton with Lillian, his wife of 44 years, who also comes from a military family.
“The soldiers died for your freedom and Jesus died for your soul,” Moore said.
