BISMARCK, ND (KXNET) - Nearly 40 years of military service and a Purple Heart later, Robert Olzweski’s story is one of grit, resilience and what he calls “North Dakota tough.”

Olzweski, a native of Sanger, North Dakota, was one of nine siblings. After high school, he worked through the summer but found himself laid off by winter. That’s when fate stepped in.

“I thought, well, I better do something,” Olzweski said.

In April 1967, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for basic training. Initially hoping to work as a mechanic, Olzweski was eventually assigned to the armory division, operating tanks on the front lines of the Vietnam War.

“This is my tank,” he said, pointing to a photo. “It covered a lot of ground before I got hit.”

His deployment to Vietnam cam

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