OMG.
Don't misplace this doozie.
"He carries a piece of shrapnel in his leg because he refused to be operated on and (spend) a couple of days in the hospital and leave us on the boat" without a commanding officer.
THAT requires a vomit break for me.
LOL. Can you stand it? All he has to do is sign a little form and all these "questions" (read: lies) would be cleared up.
FYI .. I'm just hearing on the radio Del gave this BS speech down at the Philadelphia Wall Memorial for Vietnam