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Mildura Weekly - 26/2/10
www.milduraweekly.com.au
Under fire in Vietnam, taking on crims on the streets of New York… Glen Weeks is a bloke who has seen more than his fair share of death and destruction. But now he’s on an international crusade, and will be in Mildura next week to relate his story. Now aged 62, Glen is...
A man on a mission AT 22 he was the youngest United States Army officer to lead his troops into battle in Vietnam, highly-decorated and wounded several times. In the famous 1970 firefight at ‘Fish Hook’ he led 90 Special Forces soldiers in a pitched battle safely out of an ambush by 5000 enemy troops, losing only a few men. At war’s end he became a New York policeman, again staring death in the face many times while playing the ‘good cop, bad cop’ role against some of the most feared criminals in the world. Glen Weeks knew that life was fragile, having lost many soldier and policemen colleagues, along with young friends killed in accidents while growing up in his home town. He was, in his own words, at times reckless, bordering on suicidal – but turned his life around after meeting his Australian wife in Sydney, returning to the church, and traveling the world as an evangelist for the next three decades. The 62-year-old Vietnam and NYPD veteran is back Down Under – for the 97th time – and has been invited
• CRUSADER: Glen Weeks (LEFT) didn’t mince words as a Special Forces soldier on special missions in Vietnam and Cambodia (RIGHT) or as a tough copper on the often-violent streets of New York. One story had him being called out to the same late night party three times, with repeated polite requests for them to turn the music down. Called to the same house the third time, he burst through the front door, put his heavy-duty police boot through the speaker and walked out. No more complaints!
by Mildura’s Gospel Baptist Church to talk about his experiences in life on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 5, 6 and 7, at the Old Aero Sporting Pavilion (baseball hall) off 11th Street. Glen’s is an amazing story.
He forgets how many times he has cheated death, “certainly a large handful,” starting when he was eight, when he tumbled down a 50ft cliff face into a creek. Another time he and some mates were climbing a grain silo when he
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fell, bouncing off rungs for 20 metres. Later still he survived a car crash, prompting him to enlist in a police science program at the University of New York. When he failed to make the grade, he decided to join the Marines, following the lead of his best mate Artie Comstock 10 weeks before him. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and after his basic training camp Glen went home to say his goodbyes before flying out. He was waiting at the airport bar thinking about how good it would be to catch up with Artie in Vietnam when his parents arrived, with his Dad saying sadly they had come to welcome Artie home as well – he was coming home in a coffin. Glen attended Artie’s funeral the following day, and in the space of a week, another five of his home-town friends had also lost their lives in separate accidents, with another losing a battle against leukemia. There was more heartbreak when he flew out to Vietnam as one of the elite Special Forces Rangers. Just 22 years of age, he got his first officer’s stripes, and led two Platoons from Charlie Company in a helicopter assault on the Vietcong at a place called the ‘Fish Hook.’ They flew into an ambush. Glen’s commanding officer was killed, and Glen assumed command of 90 men, along with good friend and fellow Platoon leader Vic Micah. Several choppers were knocked out of the sky by rockets and heavy machine gun fire. Micah wasn’t far from Glen when he took a direct hit
from a rocket that blew his legs off. He died almost instantly. Glen rallied his men and took on a 5000-strong attacking force until the besieged rangers got artillery support and aerial reinforcements. He has never forgotten helping carry the lifeless body of his friend, and other fellow soldiers, to the helicopters for evacuation. Glen uses this story, and other examples of wasted life, when he gives his talks around the world to church-based organisations. A committed Christian, he said from Sydney this week that it wasn’t always the case. He had always been involved in church youth groups and Sunday School activities when growing up, regularly giving donations, but was doing it because he believed he had to, not because he wanted to. He met his wife-to-be, Jennifer, a TAB worker in Sydney when he was on R and R in 1968. He fell in love with the girl, and the country, and after his discharge from the Army they flew to the United States to get married. Glen says Jennifer knew there was something missing in his life, and after he became a State Trooper with New York’s Saratoga Springs police department, joined him in services at the city’s independent Baptist Church. Then came the incident that led him to devoting his life to the church. He drove
56 kilometres to collect a police car for work, and on the way back decided to open it right up on the freeway. He says the speedo almost peaked out on 200kph when a voice reminded him that a short distance ahead lay the bridge pylon where he had helped extricate the mangled body of a young driver who had slammed into it at high speed the week before. He visualised all the needless death and destruction he had seen in his life, consulted the Bible, and not long after completing that night’s shift he resigned from the police force to offer his services to the church, telling his story to people in countries such as Canada, New Guinea, the New Hebrides, South Africa, Ireland and the United Kingdom. And he’s been doing it for the past 34 years. His message to people is that Christianity is alive and well, that God has a plan and a purpose for everyone, and he encourages people to have a crack at that sort of partnership. He says his faith, and that of Jennifer’s, has seen them through some tough times, including her cancer scare, and his fightback from heart disease, both about 18 years ago. “ B u t we’re still here,” he said. “I love what I do, traveling, visiting missionary outposts throughout the world and meeting people. Sometimes when there is a lull I even get time for a bit of fishing, and to hit that little white ball around a golf course.” “I’m looking forward immensely to the Mildura visit next week.” • DICING WITH DEATH: Glen Weeks was the youngest officer in the United States Army, and as a Special Forces unit leader was often called on to take patrols into Viet Cong-controlled regions. He tells horror stories of watching good mates cut to pieces when they flew into an ambush in Cambodia. It was 90 against 5000 Viet Cong at one stage, and Glen and his men fought them off until reinforcements arrived.