News : Veteran Harold Vanscoy speaks to Vinton Lions Club

Veterans Day at Vinton Lions Club

Vinton Lions Club speaker on Veteran’s Day was Harold Vanscoy, P.A.C., and former Green Beret serving in Vietnam starting in 1967. Harold is better known in Vinton from his many years of practice as a physician assistant at Vinton Family Medical Clinic.

“I’m not going to talk about war,” Harold began, “because if you’ve been in war you know words don’t convey much, and if you haven’t, words can’t begin to tell the story. I’ll just say that war is miserable.”

Harold shared that he didn’t enjoy the regular army much, so when the opportunity came to undergo tests for Green Beret he jumped at it. “They left after the academic and physical tests and then we didn’t hear anything at all. One day we had new orders and I went to Fort Bragg”, Harold shared.

Vanscoy also said that he took advantage of nearly every advanced training he could get, including airborne, scuba, and everything in between. Eventually he became the one on his twelve member Green Beret unit specializing as a medic. “When we had a mission in the field everyone was fighting as a warrior, my medical duties were primarily at base,” Harold explained.

Along with three others, Harold formed the first four members of what now has become Delta Force. “At that time it was just a small group willing to go on some pretty crazy missions probably no one should have undertaken,” said Harold, “of course today it’s a really big deal and lots of people have heard of it.”

Mr. Van Scoy was awarded the Bronze Star and the Silver Star for his service in Vietnam. Today he volunteers at a health care center in Cedar Rapids and is the owner of Fiesta Garden Fresh Salsa providing fresh salsa to retail outlets in seven states.

Vinton Lions will have a free-will donation Chili Supper on November 19th at the Vinton Fire Station to raise funds for Honor Flight. Be sure to mark your calendar to help Lions Club honor our Veterans.