A retired Vietnam veteran is making it his mission to make sure fellow veterans never feel alone.<\/p>\n
The local chapter of the Red Cross is honoring him this week as one of this year’s Lehigh Valley Heroes.<\/p>\n
Like a low frequency symphony, you can hear the hum.<\/p>\n
The steady vibrations of bees are known to calm the nervous system. That’s how combat veteran John Kukitz finds them.<\/p>\n
Beekeeping has been a hobby ever since he retired, with his loyal Leisel by his side and his wife of 54 years, Carol.<\/p>\n
“Staying busy and staying involved has a dual purpose for me. It allows me to help my brothers and sisters and it helps me deal with my anxiety and depression,” said John.<\/p>\n
Besides taking care of the bees, John spends almost every waking moment taking care of fellow veterans.<\/p>\n
“When we leave the military, there’s a big void, and a lot of guys and gals isolate and it’s very difficult to deal with and sometimes very difficult to get out of. We give them the support that they need to come back and be a part of a group as we were in the military,” he explained.<\/p>\n
Drafted in 1967, John landed in Vietnam when he was just 20 years old, a squad leader with the Fourth Infantry Division.<\/p>\n
Just a couple months in, those troops were part of Operation Wayne Grey, a search and destroy mission in South Vietnam.<\/p>\n
“On the 12th of March,1969, we got into an ambush. I should have been dead five times that day,” said John.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen soldiers were killed. John was one of the many wounded.<\/p>\n
He spent 5 months in the hospital.<\/p>\n
“Got out of the hospital, met my wife, and just decided since the good Lord gave me a second chance, I was not going to waste it,” he recalled.<\/p>\n
John’s made it his mission to meet people where they are, create a safe space and listen.<\/p>\n
As a member of 11 non-profits and veteran organizations, guiding veterans through the system and looking for alternatives when it fails.<\/p>\n
He knows how the war can follow you home and how survival depends on finding a way through it. He also makes sure veterans don’t have to do it alone.<\/p>\n
John Kukitz – American Red Cross hero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A retired Vietnam veteran is making it his mission to make sure fellow veterans never feel alone. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,33742,62703,62702,157,17598],"class_list":["post-135888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-american-red-cross","tag-fourth-infantry-division","tag-john-kukitz","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}