3 BILLIONAIRES YOU DIDN’T KNOW WERE VIETNAM COMBAT VETERANS
HISTORY
By Matt Fratus | May 12, 2022
Transitioning from the US military can be a tremendous endeavor for many, but some veterans have found purpose through entrepreneurship in their post-service careers. Some veterans have become so successful in their business ventures that they’ve built multibillion-dollar businesses. In particular, these three Vietnam veterans — all billionaires — grew some of the biggest businesses in America.
JOHN T. WALTON — WALMART
Walmart billionaire MACV-SOG
John Walton served with MACV-SOG in Vietnam and later joined the family business of Walmart. Composite by Coffee or Die Magazine.
Before his death, John T. Walton was the 11th richest person on earth. He accumulated a net worth of $18.2 billion before dying in a plane crash in an experimental aircraft in 2005. The 58-year-old son of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, also had a historic connection to special operations in the US military before growing Walmart into the modern-day retail behemoth.
The native of Newport, Arkansas, enlisted in the US Army to become a Green Beret. “I figured if you’re going to do something, you should do it the best you can,” he said during an interview with Andy Serwer for Fortune magazine.
https://coffeeordie.com/vietnam-combat-veterans-billionaires/
@rangerrebewHe was a medic serving on a 6 man CCN recon team running recon missions into Northern Laos out of DaNang at the same time I was at CCC in Kontum.
He won a Silver Star on one mission where his team was surrounded and everybody was wounded,for crawling around and firing on the NVA and calling in air strikes on the radio while treating his wounded team mates. IIRC,all of them survived after a "Bright Light" platoon was brought in to make the NVA back off,and load them onto helicopters.
I am GUESSING that if he had been with a conventional army unit working inside SVN,he would have probably been put in for,and received a Medal of Honor.
For those of you who don't know,a Silver Star is a serious "hero badge",and the army is pretty picky about who they award it to.
I am NOT kidding about this even a little bit. There are only two valor awards in the US Military that are higher awards than a Silver Star,and they are a "Distinguished Service Cross,and a Medal of Honor. A DSC is usually received by being put in for a MoH,and having the MoH denied.
As you can guess,the military takes these three awards VERY seriously. To give you some idea,General Douglass McArthur put himself in for a Medal of Honor during WW-2,and it was denied.
