Vietnam veteran thankful for opportunity to serve others

When Prentiss Waltman takes veterans to medical appointments for Disabled American Veterans, it's with a sense of gratitude.

A Vietnam veteran himself, of the 3rd Marine Amphibious Force, Waltman says his volunteer work is as rewarding to him as it is to veterans whose punctuality is crucial to their treatments from the Veterans Administration.

Often on the road from 4 or 5 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. four or five days a week with vets from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan, the 65-year-old Old Appleton resident plays it by ear.

"Some talk, and some won't," he said.

"Being a veteran, I usually have pretty good luck talking about the branches, what I did, what they did, hunting, fishing, but sometimes they don't want to discuss anything. They just want to ride. Whatever they want is what I do. Some veterans need a lot of help," Waltman said.

Working out of Disabled American Veterans offices in Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Waltman drove a 2007 red, white and blue Ford van for the first three years of his service and now enjoys a 2014 gray and green Ford Flex on trips with one to four men and women veterans and their spouses to clinics and hospitals in St. Louis, Marion, Illinois; Little Rock, Arkansas; Sikeston, Missouri; Farmington, Missouri; Poplar Bluff, Cape Girardeau and other cities.

Veterans may call 573-778-4616 to be picked up at their homes or other places of their choice.

A Combined Action Program Marine who was partially blinded in 1970, Waltman said, "I respect them enough that I feel like it's my duty.

"I get paid right here in my heart because these guys and ladies went and sacrificed for us. That was their job. They got up every morning and defended our country," he said.

The CAP Marines represented a counterinsurgency initiative in which a squad would be placed with a Navy corpsman and a South Vietnamese platoon in villages from Chu Lai north to the Demilitarized Zone from 1965 to 1971, according to the USMC CAP website.

Waltman, discharged as a corporal in 1972, was patrolling with his squad when the man in front of him stepped on a mine and lost both legs.

"I was blind in my right eye for almost six months before some vision came back," he said. "I still have shrapnel in my body."

The Gulfport, Mississippi, native became active in the Disabled American Veterans after retiring from the TG Missouri automobile parts plant in Perryville in 2009. He and his wife, Wanda, have four children, nine grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Averaging up to 20,000 miles annually, Waltman was the Disabled American Veterans' Southeast Missouri Driver of the Year last year.