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Ho Tho . . . A Five Year Old With No Feet

Of the hundreds of stories I filed in Vietnam having to do with the human condition and the horrors of war, one in particular remains with me. The story of a five-year-old boy named Ho Tho. He andhoandnotes.jpg (53936 bytes)  his father were the only survivors of an explosion right outside their thatched hut in a small village in the Northern Province of Quang Ngai. Below is the story I filed  which ran in Stars and Stripes and numerous papers and magazines in the U.S.  I have always tried to maintain an objective distance from the stories I report, but Ho stole my heart.
I did everything I could to try to help him. We even got his father special glasses 
which allowed him to see for the first time in many years. The story on the next page is as I filed it April 12, 1967. Ho would be 37  today . .      GO TO HO's STORY          BACK

Ho and his father outside the amputee center.
ho tho.jpg (27355 bytes)

Headline over my story in 'Stars and Stripes'  read,
"REDS TAKE HIS FEET BUT NOT HIS GRIN"ho thofeet.jpg (26279 bytes)