Vietnam War veteran couple married 50 years shares story ahead of Blue Ridge Honor Flight

MADISON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — On Saturday morning, April 27, nearly 100 veterans will travel from Asheville to Washington D.C. on the Blue Ridge Honor Flight.

A News 13 crew will be with them all day, and viewers can follow along on social media and wlos.com.

Bill and Velma Davis, both Vietnam War veterans, will head to the Capitol on Saturday as part of their first honor flight.

The couple, who has been married 50 years as of December 2023, sat down with a News 13 crew to look into the past.

“I think I ended up with three Purple Hearts by the time I was in the country and got out, but it is what it is," said Bill Davis, a veteran of both the Marines and Army. "Nothing real drastic. I survived it.”

Bill's wife, Velma, figured out a way to get to Vietnam.

“I took a short reenlistment because that was the only way I could get to Vietnam and I couldn’t tell anybody, including my family, that that’s what I was doing because if the Army found out they wouldn’t let me go,” said Velma, an Army veteran.

They both spent a year in Vietnam.

Bill was a machine gunner serving in the infantry; Charlie 14 First Battalion Third Marine Division.

“They called it 'Suicide Charlie,'” he remembered. “We were in the battle day in and day out... We had more confirmed kills and more people killed than any unit in Vietnam.”

He served at Hamburger Hill.

“This is us going up the hill to take it, but it was an NVA hospital underground,” said Bill, while describing a picture. “There was like 270-something of us up there, and 27 of us come down it.”

He was in a helicopter when it got shot down.

“I got shot through the leg," he said. "I got shrapnel in my heels, and I got shrapnel in my Achilles tendon, which I can’t operate on, and then one of the battles I’ve got shrapnel in my wrist.”

“He’s got three BBs in his wrist and one piece of shrapnel in his tush,” said Velma. “Forrest Gump.”

“I tell everybody I was running scared,” said Bill.

Velma worked payroll in the Women's Army Core.

“Back then, women in the military were looked down on," she said, as she recalled what she was told. "Good girls don’t go in the Army."

They were both just 20 years old when they deployed, and the only reason Velma volunteered was to give her little brother the option to get out.

“Back when Vietnam was going on, they had a rule that you could not force two people from the same family to be in a combat zone at the same time,” she said.

When she enlisted, her brother's unit was redeployed to Hawaii, but he didn't know what she did for him for almost 40 years.

"He said, 'You know, I probably wouldn’t have left,'" said Velma. "I said, 'I just had to give you the chance.'”

Bill's deployment ended in November of 1969 and Velma's the following September.

They met in August of 1973.

They were both working an army recruiting booth at a county fair in Washington state.

“It was ’73 when they were transitioning from the draft to the volunteer army,” said Velma.

They were married that December.

They told the News 13 crew what a fulfilling life they've lived -- a child and many grandchildren -- but the haunting memories stick with them.

“I still have trouble with the PTSD, talking about it, because it brings back too many bad things," said Bill. "Too many of your friends getting killed. It’s something that you want to try and forget but you can’t. You can’t forget it because it’s there, it’s burnt in."

Bill and Velma both said they wish to return to Vietnam and plan to in the next few years.

Initially treated as outcasts for their service, they both said it's gotten better in the last few years.

“You just get that good feeling," said Bill. "It’s not something that you want to jump up and get all excited about. It just makes you want to thank them and get up and give them a hug and say, 'Thank you for remembering me.'”