Tom voluntarily enlisted in the Navy and trained as a Corpsman with an emphasis on field service with the Marines. As a former Marine, I can tell you that the Navy Corpsmen out with the Marines are some of the most respected Navy people out there. The deploy with the Marines, hump the boonies with the Marines, and give their lives for the Marines. Many Navy Corpsman were awarded (most posthumously) the Medal of Honor supporting the Marines.
Tom was seriously wounded in Vietnam while treating a wounded Marine in 1969 in a place known as the Arizona Territory, notorious as not the bush, but the “Big Bad Bush”.
I’m a combat veteran, and we understood one another like few do. Tom was one of the finest people I knew, or ever will know.
Above all, he loved his Family, His Faith, and his Irish Heritage.
Bless him!
Bless him, and you.