WASHINGTON — A local veteran and retired D.C. police officer is getting help from a military nonprofit. He says he's grateful for the help.
Sanders Williams enlisted in the Army and served as a ‘Huey’ pilot in the Vietnam war.
"I was drafted in the Army in November 1965. I went through all the training and I was sent to Vietnam where I spent roughly two years in Vietnam," said Williams.
Williams flew medevac operations until his service came to an end, temporarily, when he suffered a serious wound to his thigh, which earned him a Purple Heart.
I was on medevac, meaning I’m picking up the wounded, and while picking up the wounded, I was shot in the upper left thigh," Williams said.
Despite his injury, Williams traveled with the Army to Washington, D.C. in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Decades later, Williams never left Washington, D.C. He retired from the Metropolitan Police Department as a Chief Pilot after more than two decades of service.
After retiring, he was connected with the Semper Fi & America’s Fund, a military nonprofit helping to remodel his home and provide financial assistance for his medical visits.
"They provided the funds for me to do this room here. My wife and I called her the angel from heaven because she came at the right time and she saw that I had a need and made sure it’s taken care of," said Williams.
Semper Fi & America’s Fund is dedicated to providing assistance to our combat wounded, critically ill and injured service members, military family members, and veterans, from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.
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