Aug 6, 2011
Source: digtriad
Randolph County, NC -- Since the Vietnam War, America's Army Special Forces have had an intimate bond with the Montagnard people. There are thousands of Montagnards in the Piedmont and across our state.
And Saturday, more than 100 of them were in Randolph County for some health screenings. And WFMY News 2 got a look at the potentially life-saving screenings through the eyes of a retired Special Forces soldier who says the Montagnards saved his.
"The loyalty that they gave us during the (Vietnam) war is phenomenal," George Clark said. Clark is the president of Save The Montagnard People and spent 10 years as a Special Forces soldier. "You just don't see that anymore."
To say the lives of the Montagnards mean something to Clark is an understatement.
"These people gave us their lives for us," he said. Clark would know, because he wouldn't be alive without them.
"When I got shot up in 1970, I had two (bullets) in the chest, one in the back and part of my head was peeled back," Clark said. "They jumped on my body ... and took two more rounds that would have finished me off."
Clark survived that and another 30-plus years of military service. Now he dedicates his life to making living easier for the Piedmont's Montagnard community.
He made that happen Saturday with a lot of from help of volunteers from both the Special Forces Association and active-duty members of the Special Forces Regiment at Fort Bragg.
The volunteers took temperatures, measured blood pressures and asked medical questions some of these Montagnards might never have heard before because many of them can't afford health insurance.
"Simple little educations may prevent future deaths and future injuries," Clark said.
So if any of this can save just one life, it would mean everything to these volunteers, and Clark.
"We're just paying dues back to the people we owe something to," he said.
Many Montagnards suffer from problems with their blood pressure, according to Clark, so he and the volunteers are hopeful these screenings can stem that.
It took years for volunteers to put together and pull off Saturday's effort, but they hope to do another event like this again soon.
WFMY News 2
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