“Wounded in combat” 
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The North Vietnamese soldiers shot down one of our planes, and a second one flew low on a foggy day and crashed into the mountain. We lost several soldiers from that. The Vietnamese hid some ammunition and we found them. General Vang Pao told us to burn it. Once we burned them, North Vietnamese came jumping out. 

There were two Americans, 3 Thais and a Thai General as well. I was told to wait because there were a lot of North Vietnamese troops. As I stepped about 50 meters out, the enemy fired at me. Blood gushed out of my nose and my gun exploded. They were amazed that I did not die. My American friend said he did not want to die and for me to give him a token to keep him alive. I gave him a Buddha stone for luck. Later on, he got shot at. The bullet pierced through his shirt, but there was no open wound on him. [He knelt] before me and thanked me because if I had not given him the token, he would have died.