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The Native-American roots of Homosassa resident Ernie Tucker have imbued him with the spirit of a warrior and faith in the Creator that led him to serve our country in uniform and his fellow man as an ordained pastor.
Born 1944 in Indianapolis, he moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of three with his mother following the separation of his parents. In 1961, he dropped out of Los Angeles' Northview High School to enlist in the Navy on his 17th birthday. During his four-year enlistment, Tucker was a helicopter crew chief at Pensacola, Florida's naval air station and a flight deck refueler aboard the USS Forrestal.
After his discharge from the Navy in August 1965, Tucker completed high school and enrolled in Mt. San Antonio Junior College in Pomona, California. However, his college education was interrupted by the war in Vietnam when his sense of duty spurred him to enlist in the Army in February 1968.
Upon completing basic and advanced infantry training, Tucker volunteered for airborne training. Upon earning his parachutist badge, he was sent to Vietnam serving as a rifleman with Company D, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade near Chu Lai.
With five months of combat experience under his belt, Tucker volunteered for the brigade scouts. After receiving training as a sniper, he became a member of a four-man sniper team, ultimately becoming the team leader.
During a mission to kill a North Vietnamese regimental commander in May 1969, Tucker earned his Purple Heart. After a night insertion by helicopter along the Vietnam-Laos border, Tucker's four-man team infiltrated into Laos and established an over watch position near the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Shortly after dawn, the team sighted a North Vietnamese officer getting out of a sedan amid a flurry of salutes and bows. Confident the officer was his designated target, Tucker fired one shot from his sniper rifle killing him instantly.
With his shot stirring an enemy hornet's nest, Tucker called in preplanned artillery fires to cover his team's withdrawal to an extraction site. After reaching it safely, the enemy's strong presence forced Tucker's team to move to its alternate extraction site on the Vietnam side of the border.
To reach the alternate site, an open area with a knee-deep stream had to be crossed. As the team prepared to cross the open area, it came under enemy fire. As his team members moved to the open area's far side, Tucker remained on the near side providing covering fire for their movement.
Once on the far side, the team members provided covering fire for Tucker. As Tucker reached the stream, he came under intense small arms and rifle grenade fire. An exploding rifle grenade laced his legs and groin with shrapnel miraculously missing his femoral artery.
Under the covering fire of his team members, Tucker, despite his painful wounds, dashed to their position. With the enemy closing in, the withering 20mm cannon fire and napalm from two Marine A-4 fighter-bombers enabled Tucker and his team to reach the alternate extraction site where a Marine CH-46 helicopter airlifted them out of danger with Tucker medevaced to the 312th Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai for surgery and post-op recovery.
After returning from Vietnam in September 1969, he had subsequent assignments at Ft. Lewis, Washington and Gelenhausen, Germany. In November 1974, he was assigned to the 82d Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, which proved to be both a minus and a plus for Tucker. During a night parachute jump, he seriously injured both kneecaps that necessitated his medical discharge in 1978. On the plus side, he met Liz, his wife of 31 years.
Receiving medical waivers for his knees in 1983, Tucker joined the Virginia National Guard serving with the 29th Infantry Division until retiring in 1992 with 23 years total military service. Following his military retirement, Tucker owned and operated a long haul semi-tractor. In 2001, he and Liz moved from Idaho to Pinellas County and then to Citrus County in 2004.
Answering God's call, Tucker became an ordained minister of the First Nation People's Ministry, an outreach ministry for hospitalized and homeless persons. As part of his Ministry's worldwide outreach, Tucker will travel to Brisbane, Australia next spring to present his painting and poem inspired by his helicopter rescue as a tribute to the Vietnam service of Australian veterans.
Most proud of his Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge and Parachutist Badge, Tucker's other awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal (two Awards) and Drill Sergeant Badge. He is a Life Member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Aaron A. Weaver Chapter 776 MOPH Chaplain.
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