- November 22, 2024
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Retired Army Lt. Col. Bill May has been looking over Veterans Day speeches online.
“They’re all boring,” he said.
May, who will be the guest speaker at Flagler County’s Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, promises his speech won’t be boring.
“I’ve had to speak on Veterans Day before. I’ll have a little bit of history in it with maybe a different slant, and then I’ll add a little bit about the (Disabled American Veterans) chapter here,” he said.
May has been the commander of the Flagler County Jim Booe DAV Chapter 86 in Palm Coast since 2021.
“We do a great deal of work and effort here to help our veterans,” he said.
The Flagler chapter has 700 members in a county with roughly 13,000 veterans, May said.
They share three Ford vans with the VA that they use to drive veterans to their VA appointments in Gainesville, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach or locally to their medical appointments, he said.
They have service officers who help veterans with disabilities file their paperwork. May has 14 people signed up to become service officers.
“I’ve been on a campaign to get people to do this for us,” he said.
They also meet with veterans in their homes and provide any help they need.
May was born on a Naval base. His father was a Navy man. In 1966, at the age of 21, he enlisted in the Army to be an infantryman. But after completing Airborne School, he was sent to Officer Candidate School and then Rotary Wing Flight School, where he became a helicopter pilot, serving in Vietnam in the 101st Airborne Division.
I flew almost every day and I got shot at almost every day, but that was the nature of the beast,” — BILL MAY, retired Army Lt. Col.
“I flew almost every day and I got shot at almost every day, but that was the nature of the beast,” he said. “It was enjoyable. If I hadn't been married, i would have stayed for another tour or two.”
He found out in later years, that it was also traumatic.
“We flew Hueys. We were an assault helicoper company. This made me a troop lift company, but we had resupply missions,” May said. “I lost a number of guys that were in my unit. I lost a roommate that I had gone through flight school with. He had been over there about a month, and he was killed. I still stay in touch with all my crew chiefs and door gunners. They come to our reunions every year.”
May was an infantry company commander at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where Colin Powell was his brigade commander. May did a tour in Korea, got his master’s degree at the Army’s Command and General staff College and did a final overseas tour in 1983-84 in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
“I was the operations officer for the peacekeeping forces, which was an interesting time," he said. "I got shot at a couple times over there, but it was just harassment fire more than anything else.”
His final assignment was at the Naval Air Engineering Center in Lakehurst, New Jersey, where he was the commander of the Army’s Airborne Electronics Research Activity.
“That was where the Hindenburg crashed, and I lived right across the street in a big brick house,” May said. “I looked out every morning and saw the little marker where that balloon went down.”
May served in the Army for 22 years. He was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star along with “a bunch of Air medals and a whole bunch of meritorious service medals.”
After retiring from the Army, he sold flight simulators and helicopters all over the world. He and his wife, Edie, moved to Palm Coast in 2001. He sold real estate here until December, 2021. A fishing club friend talked him into volunteering at the DAV.
“He asked me what did I think about the VA and did I have any medical disabilities? I told him absolutely not. I was an infantry officer and a paratrooper and a helicopter pilot. We don't get sick, we don't get hurt. Well, I was wrong. I have some PTSD. It's from seeing friends get hurt. I'm not a guy that panics or anything like that. I'm over protective and over vigilant. That's what the doctors tell me.”
Less than a year after becoming a volunteer, he became the Flagler County DAV commander.
Bill and Edie will celebrate their 56th anniversary next month. They have one son, a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, who all live in Palm Coast.
