NEENAH, Wis. (WFRV) – Richard Daseke doesn’t consider himself a hero. But on March 21st, 1969 — alone, bleeding, and surrounded by chaos — he did what heroes do.

Daseke, a 21-year-old Army specialist at the time, was stationed at Landing Zone White in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division when a unit of the North Vietnamese Army launched a surprise attack in the middle of the night.

“Before I knew it, everyone around me was either gone or dead,” Daseke recalled. “I couldn’t see anything, so I crawled to the mortar pit and started firing illumination rounds. I did it for 40 minutes straight until artillery from another base started firing over us.”

He was hit with shrapnel in the back, face, and ear — wounds that earned him a Purple Heart. But it was his bravery under fire, continuing to

See Full Page