Benjamin Smith leaves hospital

[Leslie]

I hope this message is appropriate for the group. It is a call for support for our neighbor, Benjamin Smith (Smitty) who lives in Panama with his wife Rachelle. Smitty is a Navy Seawolf recovering from emergency surgery and 9 days in a local hospital. As you all no doubt are aware, the VA will not be covering any of his expenses incurred outside the US. Rachelle has been using her personal retirement funds to pay the $30,000 bill. A friend suggested to them a GoFundMe site for those who want to help. They agreed and are very thankful for any consideration. Please take a look at the whole story and keep updated with Smitty and Rachelle. And please share the link with your contacts that are appropriate. Thank you very much.
https://www.gofundme.com/smittyandrachelle

Leslie Lieurance
Los Altos de Cerro Azul
Republic of Panama

[Dan Arnes]

Leslie,
Thanks for the info. Are you any relation to William R. Lieurance?

[Leslie Lieurance]

Dan -

Thanks for getting in touch with Smitty's wife, Rachelle. She said it is appreciated. She is still shaken and it is hard for her to focus on day-to-day activities and chores. She is watching over 8 vacation houses here while the owners are away. Just a little example of what they have given to the community over 10 years. Incredible amount of energy. So it is great to see Smitty getting back his strength.

I don't know of William R. Lieurance. Where was he from? My dad William B. served in Guadalcanal in WWII. I don't have any military experience since the Vietnam War was winding down when I was in school. Hearing Smitty's stories of  flying with Daddy Cobra, Al Billings, it's hard to imagine what it must have been like. Incredible courage by all.

Smitty's friends and neighbors are happy to help any way we can. I will be updating his page and appreciate any shares. https://www.gofundme.com/smittyandrachelle

Les
Panama

[Dan Arnes]

I did contact Rachelle and received this email back (with some deletions of personal stuff):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Rachelle Smith
To: Dan Arnes
Sent: Tuesday, July 5, 2016 5:12 PM
Subject: RE: In Panama hospital?

Hi Dan,

Smitty is home now but was in the hospital for 10 days total, four of which was intensive care, it was touch and go for awhile.  [deleted] and he was about 2 hours away from death. He is still very fragile but is getting a little stronger everyday, it will be a slow recovery as he has to have another surgery to [deleted] and we are trying to get back to the States to go to a VA hospital but we are hearing that is difficult because of them being understaffed.  While he was in intensive care I sold the house at a loss but his health is more important so we will be coming back in 2-3 months when he can travel and we close on the house.  Plan on moving back to Florida to be near family.  Our friends here started a go fund for him and he was trying to get connected to the seawolves as Smitty talks about you guys all the time and this past year he has written a book on his experiences while in Vietnam.  I don't know if you can do anything to help Les get the info out to the seawolves or not but he asked for a contact number and I had you down in my address book, I hope you didn't mind him contacting you.  We look forward to being back in the States and joining you at the reunions.

Thanks,

Rachelle & Smitty
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P.S. the links to the gofundme sites shown in these posts no longer work for some reason. You need to copy and paste the link spelled out at the end of Leslie's first post into your browser search field and it will take you there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leslie,
William R Lieurance is or was in the Pflugerville, TX area. I ran across a profile of his where he claimed to be with HA(L)-3 Seawolves in 1968-1969, but he is not in our records. I sent him a message but he didn't respond back. He was also listed as a "Deserter" in HC-7 records after going back to the states on Leave. Sorry, had to ask...

Dan