I, like most everyone else in 1971 who was getting out of high school, was greeted by the draft and the war in Vietnam. A week after graduation I went over to the recruiting station in Brainerd, MN and I enlisted in the Marines! I had been working on weekends then for a friend of my dad who was a carpenter, his name was Pat! Pat had a younger brother who was my age, his name was Mike!

About one week out of school Mike and I had worked all day on this cabin that Pat was hired to build out of Deerwood, MN and we were plenty dirty at the end of the day! Mike said he wished he could clean up? Well, I happened to know of a little lake where we could take a dip to knock the dirt off and it wasn’t too far away! Mike had a motorcycle, so we headed to Peterson Lake south of Deerwood.

We had a dip and when we were done, I was sitting on the back of the motorcycle on the edge of the road with my feet on the ground waiting for Mike to finish putting his boots on next to the motorcycle on the lake side! Suddenly, a car came off the tarred road onto the dirt road we were parked on at a high rate of speed and spun out of control and hit us as it was sliding! I was knocked off the back of the motorcycle and ended up lying in the road and Mike was knocked into the lake with the motorcycle!

Well, I thought I was OK? But when I went to stand up my left foot folded over at the ankle and I knew that wasn’t right? I stayed sitting down, but I didn’t like my foot moving around sort of loose! The foot peg from the motorcycle had gone into my leg just above my ankle and the car bumper hit my leg on the other side! I had no pain, so at first I didn’t know it had been broken. 

The fellow had a carload of girls and had been on their way to a party right near where we had been swimming! The fellow helped Mike get the motorcycle back on the road and then said he was going to go call an ambulance for us and he took off with the girls! Mike and I sat there and a short time later here came an early 60’s Blue Mercury Comet 4 door. This fellow stopped and asked what was going on and we told him the story! He may have had a beer in his hand when he got out of the car. It just so happened that he was going to that party that was going to happen there.

He said, “I’ll take you to the hospital.”

We were going to wait for the ambulance, but then he told us he had just got back from Vietnam and he was an ambulance driver there!

Well, he showed my friend how to hold my ankle and leg to stabilize it while he went around the car and helped me get in and lay down on the rear seat. I notice a case of beer on the floor in the back and then my friend was holding my foot out the window as this fellow closed the door for him! We took off for the hospital in Crosby and this fellow may have had another beer on the way. I know he offered us one! 

As we were on our way at a high rate of speed, he said, “My name is Sonny!”

Well, we made it to the emergency entrance and somewhere between Deerwood and Crosby we had picked up the attention of a Sheriff and we had company at the hospital when we got there!!!! Sonny was trying to explain his driving with beverage in hand trying to get some help, but the Sheriff was not too happy!

I finally made it into the emergency room. I wasn’t there very long my friend was there, Sonny was there, and Sonny’s mom was there, she was a nurse! And the Sheriff!!! Well not too long after, there was local police, my dad, and two uncles.

The Sheriff wanted to ticket Sonny for drinking and driving! But then something amazing happened in that room. All the veterans who happened to be from 3 different wars came to Sonny’s defense!

They said to the Sheriff, “If it wasn’t for Sonny this kid would still be laying out in a dirt road yet! Leave him be!”

Someone took Sonny’s beer and said, “Goodbye and Thank you!”

To see the look on all those veterans’ faces in that room standing up for one of their own! You knew in a moment what a Band of Brothers really meant!!!!!

That was the first and last time I met Sonny Geyer, but I’ve thought of him many times through the years! I wondered if Sonny made it back to that party? I would like to think he did!

OH! The ambulance did go out that day but somehow it ended up down by Highway 18 and Highway 6. It had blown its engine and never would have made it!!! Thanks Sonny! 

I ended up in the hospital 2 or 3 weeks with a full length cast on my leg. Then when I got back home the Marine recruiters came out every two weeks just to check up on me to find out when the doctor figured I would be out of the cast? Well after 3 months they came out and ripped my enlistment papers up and told me to go down to the Twin Cities for another physical when I could walk again. So, after 10 months the cast came off and I made the trip but the doctor there said the leg was weak and to come back again in 6 months, which I did, but that leg had lost some movement so I didn’t pass! They sent me home with some paper and that was it, my military career ended before it began!