In this month’s Unsung Hero segment, we’re honoring a soldier who went beyond the call of duty in Vietnam – putting his life on the line day after day to fight for our freedom.

At age 24, Howard Hayden got his draft notice on his first wedding anniversary.

"Another year and I'd have been 25 and I would have never been drafted,” he remembered.

That piece of paper sent him around the globe to fight with the 25th Infantry in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive.

I fought 3 days, 3 nights with about 3 hours of sleep,” Hayden said.

All the while, the now 65-year-old who lives near Rock Falls, says he was convinced he’d never see his family again.

"I didn't figure on coming back because they trained me all the way through training there was 99 to 1 coming back. And I believed it."

During his time spent on mechanized tracks in Vietnam, Hayden earned himself four purple hearts. But, he also came back to the states with fears that didn’t shine as bright.

"I was actually scared to get off the plane because I'd heard of people getting shot 'cause their sons didn't get back,” he said. "I kinda' had a nervous breakdown and I didn't get any help to fit myself back together even for that. I put myself back together. Back them we didn't talk about it. I didn't talk about it for 20-some years. My dad didn't know what I did there. My wife never even knew what I did there. Until I wrote my stories."

Hayden says his 117-page book started as a way to preserve his memories of war for his granddaughters. Eight years later, he says it became a sort of therapy – helping him heal.

"I used to get a lot of nightmares,” he remembered. “And after I wrote the book, they kinda' left me."

Hayden says his book is available at a few small local libraries. It is called “A Soldier’s Story: Tracks, Tunnels and the Tet Offensive.”