John Mullan enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1957 at the tender age of 17. He served in the Dominican Republic and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba before being deployed to Vietnam in 1967, during ongoing riots in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. “I left a combat zone to go to a combat zone.” He found himself in a firefight as a staff sergeant just 18 hours after landing in country at Da Nang. Over the next six months his platoon (1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1/5 Marines) sustained 16 KIA and more than 60 wounded in actions from Hoi An and Phu Loc 6 to the Hai Van Pass, and finally Hue in the middle of the Tet Offensive. Mr. Mullan describes being blown out of a building by an RPG blast and then shot in the head with an AK-47 while lying in the street, being rescued by a corpsman, and surviving his horrific wounds against all odds before being medically retired in 1969. In 2019, Mr. Mullan published a book about his experiences entitled The Loner, because “that's what a platoon sergeant has to be, a loner.”