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PAGE TWELVETHE HOLLAND, MICHIGAN,Medal Winner Says HeWas Stoned' on DrugsTAWAS CITY (UPI) -Peter Lemon, awarded the Medal of Honor by President Nixon lastweek, says he was “stoned” on marijuana the day he won the combat honor for single -handedly repulsing a Viet Cong attack.“Yes, I was on marijuana,” said Lemon Monday. He is now an unemployed civilian living in a backwoods cabin with his wife of two months.coming. Lemon “unhesitatingly assaulted the enemy” by throwing more grenades.Although injured yet a third time, Lemon picked up a machine gun and stood atop an embankment “fully exposed to enemy fire” and fired at the retreating Viet Cong soldiers until he collapsed from wounds and exhaustion.The 21-year-old Sgt. Lemon was awarded the Medal of Honor for fighting off an attack April 1, 1970, at a 1st air cavalry division post in Tay Ninh near the Cambodian border.(lt;4 4We were really partying the night before,” Lemon told an interviewer. “We weren’t expecting any action because we were in a support unit.It was the only time 1 ever went into combat stoned. You get really alert when you’re stoned because you have to be.” Lemon’s citation said he engaged the enemy with his machine gun and rifle until they malfunctioned, then used hand grenades. Although wounded by grenade fragments, Lemon pursued and killed the last attacker in hand-to-hand combat.Lemon then carried a more seriously wounded comrade to an aid station and suffered a second wound from a bullet while returning to his post “through a hail of small arms and grenade fire.”Realizing another attack wasLemon said he want to Vietnam “with the idea to tight for my country and wave the flag and then three days later changed my mind.”“I definitely feel that the Americans are the aggressors in Vietnam,” he said. “All the Vietnamese want to do is live day-by-day and not have us there. * *Lemon said it’s not just U.S. troops who commonly use marijuana in Vietnam. “I think 90 per cent of all Americans (in Vietnam), combat troops or not, are using marijuana,” he said.Since he returned from Vietnam, Lemon has been living a quiet, almost secluded life, with his new wife in a cabin along the Lake Huron shore a few short miles from this northern Michigan community of 2,472 where he went to school.“People in town think I’m a hero now,” he said. “But a few weeks ago they wouldn’t even speak to me. I was just another long-haired bum ”Lemon said he had three inches of his hair cut before Thursday to accept the medal ofGROUPHOMEINSURANCEOWNERSCOMPANYINSURANCE ATMICHIGAN57 OFFICESNow, completeHnmentA/nerc IncurIf you own a hoin#A r a . .iMEDAL OF HONOR WINNER—Peter Lemon, 21, awardedthe Medal of Honor by President Nixon last week, says he was ''stoned'' on marijuana the day he won the combat honor for single-handedly repulsing a Viet Cong attack Lemon, now an unemployed civilian, was photographed Saturday at his home in the woods near Tawas City(UPI telephoto)nonor. “But.” he said, “the first thing when I got to Washington some military aides started to hassle me to cut some more.” Only members of his immediate family knew he was to receive the medal and his “first thought” was to turn it down. “But it was jast a little thought,” he said. “1 guess you can’t split the medal up among 12 guys, but that's who it really belongs to.”Lemon is a reluctant hero and doesn’t want to talk about the war or the part he played in it. He said he has turned down three networks who wanted to interview him “Just print this and get it straight: 1 want us to get the heck out of this war l ight now.” he saidSouthwestern MichiganCollege President QuitsPwlt;OfINIleadigrapthecontinaticweekWlt; said pack brou in w spok hurd workTherstions1177shuttaeroThpriv;goveautoimailchanDOWAG1AC (UPI)—Dr S.K Hergenroeder, president of Southwestern Michigan College, has resigned at the request of the Board of Trustees.Hergenroeder tendered his resignation Monday night. The board agreed to pay Hergenroeder $12,500, half of the $25,-000 the remainder of his contract calls for It would have run out Sept. I, 1972.The board, which has had differences with Hergenroeder, asked him to resign last week. He is the third president of the college since it was founded in 19666lolt; To INIhemUnitiwere to ai “higjobs.tnMomAppeLackmicrdiscrThAndrews Gets GrantBERRIEN SPRINGS (UPli-Andrews University will receive
Newspaper Details
Holland Evening Sentinel
Holland, Michigan, US
Tue, Jun 22, 1971
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Naomi S.
USA 21 Apr 2018
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