R.I.P Command Sergeant Major Adkins...

When I see these stories I tend to Google and see what else I can learn about the deceased.

Safe to Say that in this case, I was not disappointed:

Medal of Honor Recipient Was Saved by a Tiger and a Sawed-Off Shotgun

“This was the night the North Vietnamese had us surrounded. We were in triple canopy," he said. "We started hearing a noise and then we could see the eyes -- about a 400-pound Indonesian tiger was stalking us that night," but the enemy was more concerned than they were.

"The North Vietnamese soldiers -- they backed away from us and gave us room and we were able to get away," he said.

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The rest of the story: The tiger had an assist from the 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun Adkins carried as a sidearm. He had cut down the barrel and sawed off the stock.

The 84-year-old Adkins said he still isn't quite sure how that weapon squared with the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions, but "I did use it, I did, and a lot of hand grenades."

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Adkins' medal citation states: "During the thirty-eight-hour battle and forty-eight hours of escape and evasion, fighting with mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles, small arms, and hand grenades, it was estimated that Sergeant First Class Adkins killed between 135 and 175 of the enemy while sustaining eighteen different wounds to his body.
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Adkins doesn't talk much about his third and last tour in Vietnam in 1971, which was with the clandestine "Studies and Observation Group (SOG)," a mix of Special Forces, SEALs, other commando units and CIA operatives that ran missions behind enemy lines and in Laos and Cambodia.

Adkins retired from the military in 1978. He earned a college degree and two masters degrees from Troy State University and ran his own accounting firm.
 
Adkins retired from the military in 1978. He earned a college degree and two masters degrees from Troy State University and ran his own accounting firm.
So many fascinating stories. I love reading them as well.

However, I'm always particularly interested to hear about situations like the one above, on how a former action guy ends up being an accountant?!

Regardless, we've lost another amazing man.
 
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