January 24, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, our regular contributor Jay Moore tells the story of an ordinary man he considers his personal hero—Dennis Holt.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we return to our American Stories. Up next, a
story out of Abilene, Texas from the best storyteller in
Abilene and maybe one of the best storytellers in the country.
We're talking about our frequent contributor Jane Moore, and he's
been regular here at our American Stories for some time.
Today he shares the story of a personal hero, a
(00:31):
man with one eye. Take it away, Jay.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, I think you know we all have those people who,
for one reason or another, someone that we claim as
a personal hero. And one of those, for me is
a guy i'amed Dennis Holt.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
My fellow Americans and my fellow citizens of the world community.
I asked you to share with me today the majesty
of this moment.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Four months after President Nixon took office in January of
sixty nine, he went on television to really lay out
what his peace plan was going to be for ending
the war in Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I've asked for this television time tonight to make public
a plan for peace that can end the war in Vietnam.
The offer that I shall now present on behalf of
the government of the United States and the government of
South Vietnam, with the full knowledge and approval of President
too is both generous and far reaching.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And in his broadcast, he called for US and North
Vietnamese troops to just both pull out simultaneously from South
Vietnam over the next twelve months. At the time of
his talk, US troops were at their highest level, over
five and forty thousand. I think we're in South Vietnam,
but ultimately the leaders of North Vietnam are going to
(01:53):
reject his peace plan. But that same day, North Vietnamese
troops were pressing an attack on several South these villages
and US bass. It really was one of the most
wide ranging assaults that they had since the Tet offense
of the nineteen sixty eight But South Vietnamese troops and
American troops all across the country were fighting back. And
(02:13):
one of the persons, one of the guys who was
in the fight that day on May the fourteenth of
nineteen sixty nine, was Dennis Holt. I actually met Dennis
nine years later, which was in nineteen seventy eight. I
was a high school senior and I was working for
my dad who was a home builder, and Dennis worked
(02:34):
for him, and he oversaw the construction efforts and so
we spent a fair amount of time together. We would
drive from job's job, and occasionally we would have once together.
I think I was just seventeen, barely on the edge
of adulthood. Of alled Dennis. He was thirty one, and
in my eyes, I saw him certainly as a grown
man and certainly someone who was awfully easy to like.
(02:56):
One of the first things you noticed about Dennis is
that east miles a lot. Also that he has an
eye patch over his left eye. And so one day
I decided to ask him how it was that he
came to lose his eye. In a pickup truck, we
were heading south on a street in Abilene when Dennis
told me what happened on me the fourteenth of nineteen
sixty nine of the place near Nuiba Den, which is
(03:19):
known as the Black Persian Mountain. It's an area northwest
of Saigon, and it was really a perennial hot zone
during the Vietnam War. Anyway, Dennis is he's a native
of Abilene. He went to elementary school here, he went
to Junior High here. He was a Little League All Star.
He attended North Park Baptist Church and he was a
member of the Ableen High class of nineteen sixty five.
(03:41):
While he was there, he was the student council vice president.
His senior year, he was the quarterback of the Abilene
Eagle football team. The following graduation, he enrolled in a
local college, McMurray College, and he was going to class
during the daytime and he was working at the TIMEX
plant here in Abilene that night, trying to just earn
an to pay for school. And during his junior year
(04:03):
that he really ran out of money, and then of
course he was out of school and the draft board
came calling. So Dennis entered the army on May the
fifteenth of nineteen sixty eight, and by October he had
landed at the US airbase there, Tomson Newt Airbase, outside
(04:25):
of Saigon. He was a GI in the twenty fifth Division,
second Battalion, twenty second Infantry, a group that's often referred
to as Triple Deuce. Dennis was just twenty one three
days though before Nixon had gone on TV. Back in
May of sixty nine, the North Vietnamese troops unleashed the
(04:46):
surprised rocket attacks throughout the country, and it resulted in
some of the most intense fighting of the war, but
in response to those attacks, four infantry companies were sent
out to recon an area that was called the Crescent.
B fifty two's had just bombed the area, and Dennis's
squad was sent out on reconnaissance, and along with his
(05:07):
squad was a photographer from the Associated Press. Every platoon
is supported by what's called an APC or an armored
personnel carrier. They all have a top mounted fifty caliber
machine gun. Some of the platoon squads named Theirs, and
Dennis's was dubbed the Phantom a lot of times though
the troops walked rather than ride inside the APC, so
(05:31):
very often it's just the driver and the top mounted
gunner who were aboard that to vehicle. But as Dennis's
squad moved through the jungle that day, the APC driver
hit a tree and a branch fell and it landed
on the gunner and it broke his arm. So someone
needed to step up to man the machine gun. And
(05:51):
Dennis has told me before the unwritten rule in the
Army is never volunteered for anything, but he volunteered, and
he climbed up into the gunner spot on the Phantom
and the rest of The afternoon was tense, as you
can imagine, but nothing really happened until word finally came
that they were to head back to their support base
in a true reform as they started in that direction,
(06:14):
is when the North Vietnamese launched their ambush. The men
of Dennis's squad were caught, though they were sandwiched between
the trailing APC and the North Vietnamese army, so it
was making impossible for Dennis to fire his machine gun
at the enemy without possibly hitting his own men, So
he began firing into the trees, hoping to hit snipers.
(06:35):
You know, he's just a kid from Abilene, Texas. He
had never been farther from home than a passo, and
suddenly on a Wednesday afternoon in May of sixty nine,
he's halfway around the world. He's in a swell trained jungle.
He's manning a machine gun and a full fledged, honest
and goodness, real life war. Both sides are just frantically
trying to kill the other in order to keep themselves alive.
(07:01):
So Dennis was firing back in a storm of adrenaline,
and then his world went black. At the time, Dennis
didn't even have all the details of that day. He
wouldn't fully learn what occurred on May fourteenth of nineteen
sixty nine until he began attending Triple Deuce reunions back
(07:22):
in twenty twelve. But Dennis lost his eye and really
came within a literal inch of losing his life when
another APC gunner who was located quite some distance away,
squeezed the trigger on his machine gun, and that fifty
caliber bullet, which is a half inch wide piece of lead,
moving it like three thousand feet per second, it pierced
(07:42):
an AMO box and went through the protective armor on
the APC and hit dennists on the left side of
his head and it crossed him his eye. He told
me that as he drifted in and out of consciousness,
that the medics quickly began bandaging his head to stop
the blood loss. The Association pressed photographer who was with them,
raised his camera and took a photo had shows two
(08:05):
medics who were cradling Dennis's head there as he's lying
on the ground and VI at the knees jungle. The
picture ran and the stars and strikes. The medics strapped
Dennis to a rescue basket attached to the outside of
a helicopter and he was evacuated to the very nearest
Field hospital, where that treatment kept him from winging to death.
After he was stabilized, he would leave Vietnam. He would
(08:26):
go to Japan for more care, and then he would
be taken to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
Within just a few months of being discharged from Brook,
Dennis married a girl in nineteen seventy that he had
been friends with at Abileen High. Her name was Linda.
She often wrote to him while he was in Vietnam.
They moved to the Dallas area, but returned to Abilene
(08:49):
in nineteen seventy eight. He bought a house here in
near Cooper High School, and he was there that they
raised their two daughters. And not soon after that is
when I met Dennis. I asked him if he thinks
much about Vietnam these days, and he smiled and he
said no. Every morning. When I put this ipatch on,
it struck me that for more than five decades Dennis
(09:10):
has lived with Vietnam. But he feels fortunate, fortunate that
he came on, that he was able to move forward.
And I think all that shows in his smile. While
he was in Vietnam. Dennis turned twenty two months later, though,
when he was back in Texas, he was asked, what
did you get for your twenty second birthday? And his
(09:30):
reply was I got the chance to be twenty three.
November first of this year, Dennis turned seventy eight. He
is now a poppy to four granddaughters and one grandson
after forty two years of marriage. Linda passed away in
twenty twelve, but Dennis still lives and they're a home
by Cooper, and he is still one of my heroes
(09:53):
and he always will be.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Jama The production editing and storytelling by our own Monte
Montgomery and Reagan Habib. And a special thanks to Jay
Moore for sharing this story, for telling this story about
one of his heroes, his hero in Abilene, Texas, Dennis Holt.
And there are so many stories like this all around
our country, not the big, glorious hero stories, but just
(10:22):
the ordinary ones. The story of Dennis Holt went on
to live a life, to be a contribute to his community,
a model to young men like Jay, and to have
kids and then grandkids. An American hero story. Dennis Holt's
story here on our American Story
And we return to our American Stories. Up next, a
story out of Abilene, Texas from the best storyteller in
Abilene and maybe one of the best storytellers in the country.
We're talking about our frequent contributor Jane Moore, and he's
been regular here at our American Stories for some time.
Today he shares the story of a personal hero, a
(00:31):
man with one eye. Take it away, Jay.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, I think you know we all have those people who,
for one reason or another, someone that we claim as
a personal hero. And one of those, for me is
a guy i'amed Dennis Holt.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
My fellow Americans and my fellow citizens of the world community.
I asked you to share with me today the majesty
of this moment.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Four months after President Nixon took office in January of
sixty nine, he went on television to really lay out
what his peace plan was going to be for ending
the war in Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I've asked for this television time tonight to make public
a plan for peace that can end the war in Vietnam.
The offer that I shall now present on behalf of
the government of the United States and the government of
South Vietnam, with the full knowledge and approval of President
too is both generous and far reaching.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And in his broadcast, he called for US and North
Vietnamese troops to just both pull out simultaneously from South
Vietnam over the next twelve months. At the time of
his talk, US troops were at their highest level, over
five and forty thousand. I think we're in South Vietnam,
but ultimately the leaders of North Vietnam are going to
(01:53):
reject his peace plan. But that same day, North Vietnamese
troops were pressing an attack on several South these villages
and US bass. It really was one of the most
wide ranging assaults that they had since the Tet offense
of the nineteen sixty eight But South Vietnamese troops and
American troops all across the country were fighting back. And
(02:13):
one of the persons, one of the guys who was
in the fight that day on May the fourteenth of
nineteen sixty nine, was Dennis Holt. I actually met Dennis
nine years later, which was in nineteen seventy eight. I
was a high school senior and I was working for
my dad who was a home builder, and Dennis worked
(02:34):
for him, and he oversaw the construction efforts and so
we spent a fair amount of time together. We would
drive from job's job, and occasionally we would have once together.
I think I was just seventeen, barely on the edge
of adulthood. Of alled Dennis. He was thirty one, and
in my eyes, I saw him certainly as a grown
man and certainly someone who was awfully easy to like.
(02:56):
One of the first things you noticed about Dennis is
that east miles a lot. Also that he has an
eye patch over his left eye. And so one day
I decided to ask him how it was that he
came to lose his eye. In a pickup truck, we
were heading south on a street in Abilene when Dennis
told me what happened on me the fourteenth of nineteen
sixty nine of the place near Nuiba Den, which is
(03:19):
known as the Black Persian Mountain. It's an area northwest
of Saigon, and it was really a perennial hot zone
during the Vietnam War. Anyway, Dennis is he's a native
of Abilene. He went to elementary school here, he went
to Junior High here. He was a Little League All Star.
He attended North Park Baptist Church and he was a
member of the Ableen High class of nineteen sixty five.
(03:41):
While he was there, he was the student council vice president.
His senior year, he was the quarterback of the Abilene
Eagle football team. The following graduation, he enrolled in a
local college, McMurray College, and he was going to class
during the daytime and he was working at the TIMEX
plant here in Abilene that night, trying to just earn
an to pay for school. And during his junior year
(04:03):
that he really ran out of money, and then of
course he was out of school and the draft board
came calling. So Dennis entered the army on May the
fifteenth of nineteen sixty eight, and by October he had
landed at the US airbase there, Tomson Newt Airbase, outside
(04:25):
of Saigon. He was a GI in the twenty fifth Division,
second Battalion, twenty second Infantry, a group that's often referred
to as Triple Deuce. Dennis was just twenty one three
days though before Nixon had gone on TV. Back in
May of sixty nine, the North Vietnamese troops unleashed the
(04:46):
surprised rocket attacks throughout the country, and it resulted in
some of the most intense fighting of the war, but
in response to those attacks, four infantry companies were sent
out to recon an area that was called the Crescent.
B fifty two's had just bombed the area, and Dennis's
squad was sent out on reconnaissance, and along with his
(05:07):
squad was a photographer from the Associated Press. Every platoon
is supported by what's called an APC or an armored
personnel carrier. They all have a top mounted fifty caliber
machine gun. Some of the platoon squads named Theirs, and
Dennis's was dubbed the Phantom a lot of times though
the troops walked rather than ride inside the APC, so
(05:31):
very often it's just the driver and the top mounted
gunner who were aboard that to vehicle. But as Dennis's
squad moved through the jungle that day, the APC driver
hit a tree and a branch fell and it landed
on the gunner and it broke his arm. So someone
needed to step up to man the machine gun. And
(05:51):
Dennis has told me before the unwritten rule in the
Army is never volunteered for anything, but he volunteered, and
he climbed up into the gunner spot on the Phantom
and the rest of The afternoon was tense, as you
can imagine, but nothing really happened until word finally came
that they were to head back to their support base
in a true reform as they started in that direction,
(06:14):
is when the North Vietnamese launched their ambush. The men
of Dennis's squad were caught, though they were sandwiched between
the trailing APC and the North Vietnamese army, so it
was making impossible for Dennis to fire his machine gun
at the enemy without possibly hitting his own men, So
he began firing into the trees, hoping to hit snipers.
(06:35):
You know, he's just a kid from Abilene, Texas. He
had never been farther from home than a passo, and
suddenly on a Wednesday afternoon in May of sixty nine,
he's halfway around the world. He's in a swell trained jungle.
He's manning a machine gun and a full fledged, honest
and goodness, real life war. Both sides are just frantically
trying to kill the other in order to keep themselves alive.
(07:01):
So Dennis was firing back in a storm of adrenaline,
and then his world went black. At the time, Dennis
didn't even have all the details of that day. He
wouldn't fully learn what occurred on May fourteenth of nineteen
sixty nine until he began attending Triple Deuce reunions back
(07:22):
in twenty twelve. But Dennis lost his eye and really
came within a literal inch of losing his life when
another APC gunner who was located quite some distance away,
squeezed the trigger on his machine gun, and that fifty
caliber bullet, which is a half inch wide piece of lead,
moving it like three thousand feet per second, it pierced
(07:42):
an AMO box and went through the protective armor on
the APC and hit dennists on the left side of
his head and it crossed him his eye. He told
me that as he drifted in and out of consciousness,
that the medics quickly began bandaging his head to stop
the blood loss. The Association pressed photographer who was with them,
raised his camera and took a photo had shows two
(08:05):
medics who were cradling Dennis's head there as he's lying
on the ground and VI at the knees jungle. The
picture ran and the stars and strikes. The medics strapped
Dennis to a rescue basket attached to the outside of
a helicopter and he was evacuated to the very nearest
Field hospital, where that treatment kept him from winging to death.
After he was stabilized, he would leave Vietnam. He would
(08:26):
go to Japan for more care, and then he would
be taken to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
Within just a few months of being discharged from Brook,
Dennis married a girl in nineteen seventy that he had
been friends with at Abileen High. Her name was Linda.
She often wrote to him while he was in Vietnam.
They moved to the Dallas area, but returned to Abilene
(08:49):
in nineteen seventy eight. He bought a house here in
near Cooper High School, and he was there that they
raised their two daughters. And not soon after that is
when I met Dennis. I asked him if he thinks
much about Vietnam these days, and he smiled and he
said no. Every morning. When I put this ipatch on,
it struck me that for more than five decades Dennis
(09:10):
has lived with Vietnam. But he feels fortunate, fortunate that
he came on, that he was able to move forward.
And I think all that shows in his smile. While
he was in Vietnam. Dennis turned twenty two months later, though,
when he was back in Texas, he was asked, what
did you get for your twenty second birthday? And his
(09:30):
reply was I got the chance to be twenty three.
November first of this year, Dennis turned seventy eight. He
is now a poppy to four granddaughters and one grandson
after forty two years of marriage. Linda passed away in
twenty twelve, but Dennis still lives and they're a home
by Cooper, and he is still one of my heroes
(09:53):
and he always will be.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Jama The production editing and storytelling by our own Monte
Montgomery and Reagan Habib. And a special thanks to Jay
Moore for sharing this story, for telling this story about
one of his heroes, his hero in Abilene, Texas, Dennis Holt.
And there are so many stories like this all around
our country, not the big, glorious hero stories, but just
(10:22):
the ordinary ones. The story of Dennis Holt went on
to live a life, to be a contribute to his community,
a model to young men like Jay, and to have
kids and then grandkids. An American hero story. Dennis Holt's
story here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.