Heroes are not born... they are wrought by circumstance. The mark of a hero is one who is detached from his terrible destiny yet chooses to engage its challenge with extraordinary selflessness. The Paul D. Savanuck Post 888, JWV, is named for such a man. A gentle, sensitive young man, Paul grew up in what possibly was the last era of America's age of civility (1946-1969) and he seemed the least likely candidate for heroism.

In 1967, America's involvement in Vietnam had not yet reached its dizzying proportions in cost of human casualties and material. The campuses, the political activists had not yet been awakened. The tele-vision cameras had not yet focused on the "ugly little war." America was detached, but not yet disillusioned or repelled by the conflict.

In 1967 Paul was a senior, majoring in journalism at the University of Maryland. He naively made the judgement that Vietnam would be the arena in which his training as a journalist could be tested. He left school and volunteered for service in the Army. As with most young people, he had a mistaken sense of immortality. After intensive study in military journalism at Fort Benjamin Harrison Defense Information School, the army bureaucracy ran true to form, Paul was sent to a missile base in Germany. His talents and training as a journalist were not being employed. He bristled with restlessness and used every avenue of the bureaucracy until his requested transfer to the "cauldron of hell" was approved.