Donald James Sullivan
Era: Vietnam
Military Branch: Army
Donald James Sullivan served in the Vietnam War.
He served in the U.S. Army. Mr. Sullivan was assigned to Headquarters and the Headquarters Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
His rank was Sergeant.
Mr. Sullivan was born in 1950 in Ashland, Wisconsin. He is the son of Steven and Regina Sullivan.
He was decorated with the Bronze Star and the Parachutist Badge.
Source: Veterans' Memorial hall veteran history form; veteran's account (below)
"I was working at the motor pool on an MP [military police] vehicle. I reached into the gas tank to clean my hands when I felt something roll around in the gas tank. I grabbed it to get it out of there and realized it was a grenade. Then I hollered at everyone to get out of there and to let someone know what was going on. The bomb squad was out on a mission so I had to take care of the grenade. The group prepared a sandbagged area for me to put the grenade in. Luckily, it didn't go off. I did find the spoon--someone had put a rubber band around the handle with the pin pulled hoping the gasoline would eat the rubber band off and explode."
