35 cents
VOL. 4/ISSUE 40
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2016
Purple Heart Day, Aug. 7
Atlas rocket blasts off From above the new tower constructed for the recent $2 million-plus expansion of the Brevard Veterans Memorial Center on Merritt Island, the July 28 launch of the Atlas V rocket soars into the sky. The rocket is destined to perform missions for the National Reconnaissance Office. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is responsible for the fleet of satellites used by US intelligence agencies for surveillance, as well as in supporting roles such as research and development or communications. The exact mission of the launch remains classified.
Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
“The General ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit, directs that whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry, but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way shall meet with a due reward.” General George Washington Aug. 7 is Purple Heart Day. There are likely about 10,000 recipients of the Purple Heart living in Florida. Carl Miller, commander of the Space Coast chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, 453, is one. On Feb. 8, 1969, he was in a foxhole in Vietnam keeping watch while two others with him slept. A mortar landed in the foxhole. “I got hit at 9:20 at night,” Miller said. “I’d just got done looking at my watch moments before it hit.” The blast threw Miller, and ripped off his left arm. It badly mangled his right arm. His companions died in the blast. Miller was then shot by the North Vietnamese Army overrunning the camp that night. He amazingly survived and received the Purple Heart twice — one for the blast, the other for the gunshots. “I was in the hospital in Quam,” Miller said. “I was in a full body cast at the time. An officer and couple enlisted men came by. They were handing them out, because all of us were wounded. They pinned it to my body cast.” Miller doesn’t remember his chest filling with pride when he received the Purple Heart. He doesn’t remember much at all. He was in a drug-induced haze.
See HEART page 7
Photo by Roger Scruggs
Navy vet continues to protect waters Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
Navy veteran Marty Baum meets a lot of powerful people, and tells them what he thinks. That’s very often not warm accolades. The Navy prepared him for the job. “If you do four years in a submarine, there isn’t very much that frightens you,” Baum said. “There’s nowhere to run (on a sub). If you encounter a problem, you have to solve it.” Baum was on the first crew of the SSN 681, the USS Batfish, where he realized the value of his learning obsession. Everyone on a sub has to know every
system. “My curiosity is insatiable,” Baum said. “I want to know everything.” Now Baum is the Indian Riverkeeper, one of about 240 riverkeepers and waterkeepers in the Waterkeeper Alliance. His mission is to save the 156-mile Indian River Lagoon from its worst enemy: us. Right now the lagoon’s big problems are obvious. There’s toxic blue-green algae, cyanobacteria, in the southern end of the lagoon, Martin County. It’s certainly coming from Lake Okeechobee discharges into the St. Lucie River that are flushing into the brackish estuary Brevard County had a large fish die
See BAUM page 8