Vietnam wound leads to lifetime of therapy and veteran advocacy

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — A.B. Grantham’s tour during the Vietnam War was cut short during the battle of Hue in 1968.

“During the Tet Offensive, the battle of Hue was one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War — and I caught an AK47 round dead center of the chest.”

The Marine’s journey from the battlefield was captured in this photo that appeared in Life Magazine. Whether or not this is Grantham — and he believes it is him — is in dispute by the brother of another man who was killed in the war. But what happened to Grantham is not in dispute. The medical people trying to treat him for his wound thought he was dead.

“They actually zipped me in a body bag,” Grantham said. “Fortunately, I heard somebody say ‘This one’s not dead yet.’ And I didn’t know they were talking about me.”

The traumatic wound wouldn’t be the first time Grantham has cheated death.

“When I got back to the States after a few months in a hospital I got a liver abscess,” he said. “My liver abscessed and almost shut down.”

And just this past April, the grim reaper may have tried knocking on Grantham’s door again when he had a heart attack. He’s now recovering from that with a new stint — and he says:

“I feel great.”

But it has taken a lifetime of therapy to deal with the trauma inflicted on him on the battlefield.

“Dealing with PTSD, I had a very severe, chronic condition from the war — and it’s caused a lot of medical conditions with me as you can imagine, part of the heart situation and a lot of other things that we were exposed to but counseling has really helped,” he said.

And that’s good news for a lot of other combat veterans.  These days Grantham devotes a lot of time, and his experience, to helping other veterans through his involvement with the Marine Corps League.  He is a past commandant of the Sgt. Foster Harrington Detachment.

“Veterans are notorious for not wanting to ask for help — a lot of veterans are,” he said. “They’ve been taught they can handle it. So it’s difficult to find veterans who are in need of help.  And we do that through the Marine Corps League by getting out in the community and doing certain events and stuff.”

Grantham says groups like his have the resources and know where to find the sometimes specialized help veterans may need. And he says while the name may be Marine Corps League—they are there for all veterans.

“War is war, I don’t care which uniform you wear if you go to war — if you’re a veteran, if you sign that check that says you’ll risk your life for this country, then you’re a veteran to us and we want to welcome you.”

And it’s why we’re proud to recognize A.B. Grantham for serving those who serve.

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