One Tough Marine, by 1st Sgt Donald Hamblen

One Tough Marine: The Autobiography of First Sergeant Donald N. Hamblen, USMC, by First Sgt Donald Hamblen USMC (ret) and Major B.H. Norton, USMC, (ret)
Ballantine Books, 1993


"As I swung back and forth with my canopy entangled in the 69,000 volt lines above, I could feel myself drop a little and that was when my left foot hit the middle 12,000 volt line beneath me and I drove it against the outside line. When those two lines made contact I was the only obstacle between the humming 12,000 volt and 69,000 volt lines."

Thus began the course of events that changed US Marine Staff Sergeant Donald N. Hamblen's life forever. On September 21, 1962, during a routine jump with his Pathfinder Platoon of First First Reconnaissance Company, strong winds drove his parachute off course and into high tension wires at Camp Pendleton, California. Though he never lost consciousness and doctors were amazed that he had survived, five days later Hamblen's leg had to be amputated six inches below the knee.

With most people, that would be the end of the story, Sgt Hamblen would have retired on a medical pension. But Don Hamblen was one tough Marine. He fought to remain in the Marines, passed all the arduous physical tests expected of any Recon Marine-including a timed three-mile run with pack-and within 11 months was going to the field, parachuting, and scuba diving with First Force REcon Company.

In 1965, Sgt. Hamblen volunteered with three other Marines for service in Vietnam with the supersectret Studies and Observation Group (SOG). Working out of Danang, Sgt Hamblen trained teams of Vietnamese for clandestine missions in both North and South Vietnam. By the time he returned to the United States after serving thirty unbroken months in Vietnam, Sgt Hamblen had been wounded twice in North Vietnam and had been on more than sixty missions with his teams.

As far as is known, Sgt Hamblen is the first and only Marine to have gone into combat with a prothesis. He is one of the few Americans at all who can document having fought repeatedly in North Vietnam, and by his extraordinary example, he served as an inspiration on hospital visits to badly wounded soldiers in tht conflict.

For Donald Hamblen was a true Marine who would not quit and repeatedly demonstrated he had the courage, spirit, and self-determination to overcomee all obstacles.

Contents
Foreword by Lt. Gen Herman Nickerson USMC(ret)
Introduction: Mentors
1. My early years
2. Boot camp
3. Training for Korea
4. Cold-weather training
5. Voyage to Korea
6. Night patrol
7. Life on the lines
8. Sniper school
9. Winter operations
10. The move west
11. Corporal CArico
12. Wounded
13. Bunker Hill
14. Back to stateside duty
15. Marine barracks, New London, Connecticut
16. Back to the fleet
17. 1st Force REcon Company
18. A Jump in the wind
19. Fun in the hospital
20. Back to full duty
21. My trip to Washington, DC
22. SOG Duty in Vietnam
23. People and politics
24. General Nickerson calls
25. Wounded again
26. Final stateside duty
Epilogue
Index