Dec. 3 – A Lodi veteran is looking for others who served to share their combat experiences in hopes of possibly holding speaking engagements in the city.
Michael Thomas served as a sniper in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and his final mission was recounted in a book written by fellow Lodian and veteran Phil Lenser.
The book, titled “Crawling to Survive,” chronicles Thomas’s deployment to send a North Vietnamese colonel to Laos.
The mission was successful, but Thomas was seriously injured. He crawled more than 4 miles from Laos to the Vietnam border with his wounded spotter on his back. His spotter died during the journey, but Thomas managed to cross the border and eventually make it back home.
“I feel like there’s a lot of me in this country that no one knows about,” he said. “I try to use my book to help others do the same.”
Thomas said he has been trying to connect with other veterans for 12 years after experiencing nightmarish flashbacks during a business trip in Las Vegas. He was driving back to California when his latest mission “was just unfolding in living color.”
A few days later, he was on a plane back to Las Vegas when he struck up a conversation with a flight surgeon stationed at an Air Force base in Texas. After listening to his experiences, the surgeon told Thomas that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I asked her what to do, and she said find people who have been there and talk about it,” Thomas said. ‘Because all the drugs in the world will only make it worse. (She said) don’t let anyone give you medicine. The next night I ran into a fellow Marine and spoke with almost daylight.”
Since that time, Thomas has met only a few veterans willing to talk about their service.
That was until Lenser approached him and convinced him to tell his story through the book. Writing the book had its challenges. Lenser had to discuss the idea with the Pentagon, which granted permission as long as names were changed and places were not identified.
“We didn’t talk about what we did (when we came back),” Thomas said. “People forget. There aren’t many people from my Vietnam era alive anymore, and I was 20 when I went there. I want the general public to be receptive to hearing what I and others did to protect this country.”
Thomas has met a number of other veterans over the years, but he said they don’t live in the immediate area. He tried to start a Bible study for veterans at his church, but it didn’t work.
A few years ago he spoke at a seminar in Toronto to about 5,000 people and said he would like to speak to large groups to share his experiences.
Last month he was not scheduled to speak at the American Legion Post 22 Veterans Day event at Lodi’s Zion Lutheran Church, but post Commander John Bates asked Thomas to describe his experiences to those in attendance.
“It’s becoming more and more important,” he said of the sacrifices veterans make during their service.
“I don’t think many people understand how this country got so big,” he added. “It’s taken a lot of sacrifice. If I can help… and get more people like me to come forward… I think it’s up to people like me to kind of carry that torch.”
