It was 1967, and Hisel Gobble was playing college baseball at Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee.
He could have avoided the hot, horrific jungles of Vietnam and the war that was raging there, but service to others was ingrained in him – “it’s just my nature,” he said – so unlike the thousands who were drafted into the war, Gobble enlisted in the Marine Corps.
Within six months, he was a machine gunner, carrying an M-60 machine gun for Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. A corporal, Gobble spent 12 months and six days overseas, eventually being promoted to Machine Gun Squad Leader.
“I didn’t know if I was going to come home or not,” Gobble remembers. “That was a very hard time. It was right at the height of the war.”
Gobble, 73, said he was grateful for the opportunity to serve his country though. He remembered as a boy, seeing men returning from World War II or events honoring those veterans, who at the time were revered.