By Zach Jensen,
Oelwein native and Vietnam Veteran Sam Fox, 80, has served the United States Navy, Marines, Air Force and Department of Defense, among other jobs. (Driftless Multimedia photo by Zach Jensen)
Dropping out of high school is almost never a good idea. But, for one northeast Iowa man, it may have been one of his best decisions. Sam Fox, now 80, of rural Waukon, was raised in Oelwein, and in 1960, he dropped out of school – apparently for no reason other than just not wanting to go anymore at that time. And, looking back upon his experiences with several branches of the United States Armed Forces, including his years of service to combat veterans, Fox likely wouldn’t change a thing.
“I was a young kid and thought I knew the world,” he said with a chuckle. “I had good grades, could have made the honor roll, just didn’t want to. After leavin’ school, I turned 17, and a week later, I got off the bus in San Diego, and there was a Chief Petty Officer usin’ cuss words I didn’t even know, and I thought I knew’em all.”
Fox finished Navy bootcamp in San Diego before going to Navy corpsman school. “I qualified for various jobs, and that was one of the choices,” he said. “O’course, when I said I wanna be a corpsman, I didn’t have any idea what I was doin’.”
For those who don’t know, Fox said the U.S. Marine Corps has no medical department. So, all the medics, nurses and doctors who serve with the Marines are Navy.
After corpsman school, he went to work in a hospital in Key West, Fla., for 18 months. “Then, I decided I wanted to go back to school,” he recalled, “So I got sent to Bethesda, Maryland, Naval Medical Center, and after a while, I ended up with a
wife. I was 19 years old, and still didn’t have any brains.”
Fox said he’d only been married a couple weeks before he was called into service during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which, the U.S. Department of State said, was “a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict.” Over the course of 13 days, when the U.S. deployed nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey, those movements were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba – just 411 miles from Florida.
“That scared the hell outta me,” Fox said. “I hadn’t even been married a month. Here’s this 19-year-old kid married to a brand-new wife, sittin’ on a ship, washin’ surgical instruments and waitin’ to see if we were gonna go to shore.”
After the crisis was resolved, Fox was ordered to report to Camp Lejeune, the now-famous Marine base in North Carolina, and although he didn’t initially want to go, he’s glad he did.
“I had to do my sea duty, and for corpsman, being with the Marines is considered your sea duty,” he said. “We wore Marine uniforms with Navy insignias. We ate with’em, worked with’em, slept with’em and drank with’em. Those Marines considered us one of ’em, and they still do to this day. There’s a special relationship between the Navy Corpsman and the Marines.
“Then, Vietnam broke out, and all Hell broke loose,” continued Fox. “I got out just before the Gulf of Tonkin blew up (1964). I wasn’t out 90 days, and I figured they’d call me back, because they needed corpsmen.”
But, that call never came, so Fox decided it was time to join the workforce — his first job working in a laboratory in Rochester’s world-renowned Mayo Clinic. Four years later, he accepted a job offer to work in a microbiology lab at the Veterans Administration hospital in Gainesville, Fla. But, after divorcing his first wife and working for 12 years in Gainesville, Sam burned out. And, in 1980, he decided it was time to return to northeast Iowa … for a while.
“Then, I went down to Oklahoma and went to horse-shoeing school, learned how to shoe horses, came back up here and set up my own business,” he said. “I sold feed, shod horses, and in 1985, the farm market collapsed.”
It was time for Fox to get another job … but where? And, doing what? To help him make those decisions, he took a map of the U.S. and ripped off states and regions where he didn’t want to live – and started sending out applications to jobs in the states that remained. One of the first jobs he applied for hired him in Alabama … but not to work in Alabama. Rather, he was hired to work for the United States Air Force and Department of Defense (DoD) in Columbus, Miss., where he worked in microbiology.
“I figured I’d only be there a couple years and then transfer out west somewhere,” Fox said. “But, 20 years later, I was still there.”
Fox married Valerie, the love of his life, in Mississippi and worked for the DoD until his retirement; after which he and his wife moved back to northeast Iowa.
“I checked in at the local VA office,” he said, referring to the time shortly after he’d moved back. “The first thing they say is ‘Hey, you wanna drive the van to Iowa City?’ I said I’d try it for a while, and I ended up driving Vets from northeast Iowa to Iowa City for 13 years.”
But, those 13 years of helping fellow Veterans get to medical appointments in Iowa City were also fraught with challenges, because Sam and Valerie were only together in northeast Iowa a year before Valerie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Multiple sclerosis is a potentially-disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord which causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body and can cause permanent damage to nerve fibers.”
To help his wife with her disease, Fox found Thunder Rode, a rural Decorah nonprofit which utilizes horses to help people with special needs, including people with developmental disabilities, disabling diseases such as MS and potentially-crippling mental illnesses such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – a condition often associated with military veterans and combat experiences.
While helping his wife, Fox worked with Thunder Rode staff to develop a new program to help Veterans.
“Horses are very good for Veterans with PTSD,” he said. “There’s something there with horses. You learn to work with the horse and care for the animal, and the Vets get some satisfaction out of volunteering to help others with horses, too.
“When you get that relationship with the horse, they trust you, and you trust them,” Fox continued. “Just like with a dog, horses can read you. If you don’t trust’em, or you don’t have faith in’em, they’re gonna know it. So, you better learn how to be with them and care for them. It’s a mutual thing.”
In truth, Fox said Thunder Rode’s equine therapy program was so effective, it probably added five years to Valerie’s life, in spite of her disease. Valerie and Thunder Rode battled MS together for 10 years before she passed in 2022. “She was a good Mississippi woman, and we were married 32 years,” Fox said.
It was through his work with Thunder Rode that Fox learned how important it was for Veterans from all conflicts to connect with each other. Regardless of their age, all war Veterans have shared two experiences with which almost nobody else can relate: Military life and combat. To that end, Fox is a Past Commander of American Legion Post 722 in Harpers Ferry and the President of Chapter 8 of the Disabled American Veterans.
“Most veterans don’t realize it when they’re young,” Fox said, “but as they get older, they come to appreciate Veterans’ groups. I don’t know what it is about us getting together, but we talk and open up to each other. We’ve experienced things only other veterans can relate with, and it’s important that we share that with each other.”
That sharing with each other is especially important, Fox said, for Veterans contemplating suicide.
“I don’t think they realize how much just talking to another Vet helps,” he said. “Just gettin’ together in a group, with fellow Vets, is somethin’ powerful. It ain’t no cure, but it helps.”
Fox didn’t have any idea what he was doing when he dropped out of school 63 years ago. But, since then, he’s served his country, helped Veterans as best he could, was married to a “good Mississippi woman” and helped countless others through his work at Thunder Rode and in other endeavors – all of which adds up to having lived a good life – for which Fox is extremely grateful … and humble.
“At the time, it was just my job,” Fox said. “It’s what I did. Later on in life, all the experiences I’ve had and all the jobs I’ve been on – workin’ with the VFW, the Legion and DAV – I’m pretty damn proud. That’s all I can say.”
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