A different kind of war story for Memorial Day: A newlywed Texas woman reportedly becomes a guardian angel to her young husband during the Vietnam War

In 1970, collegian Jack Wheeler had just married a beautiful Texas coed named Delores when he found out his draft lottery number was four – a grim jackpot whose prize was Nam. Yet, in some strange way, Delores never seemed to leave his side – appearing in ghostly form time and again to save his life on the battlefield. In 1971, near the DMZ, Jack half-awoke to see Delores urging him to flee his cot – just seconds before an explosion that obliterated his “hooch” (hut). Fully awakened by the blast, Jack now realized that his pet dog Midnight had pulled him away from his bed – but had the pooch had help? Later, on a helicopter flight, Jack saw a jungle island below him strangely forming itself into the image of Delores’s face and saying, “Don’t worry, Jack. I’m here to protect you.” As he heard those words, a letter from Delores fell to the chopper floor, and when he went to reach for it, a wind gust blew it farther away. Just as Jack left his seat to retrieve the letter, a series of enemy rounds ripped through the same seat, the bullets grazing his legs. The crippled chopper plummeted, and when Jack regained consciousness, he saw the copter precariously perched on a treetop 50 feet above “Delores Island,” and he heard her say, “I’m here to protect you.” At that moment, the copter plunged from the tree and slammed the ground. Jack blacked out. He found himself in a near-death experience, rushing down a spectacularly colored tunnel, mesmerized by white light and becoming more and more ecstatic as he moved along. But an etheric half-figure of Delores blocked him suddenly: “Don’t leave me. I want you to come home – to have children with you. If you don’t stop, you’ll never see me again. You’ll lose me!” Jack rested himself in her bosom. She held the battle-weary GI like a child in her arms as she led him back out of the tunnel. When Jack regained consciousness, all of Delores’ seven letters that he had been carrying on the chopper were now with him in the hospital – including one letter that had blown out of the chopper just before it had been hit by gunfire. On October 28, 1972, after these and other spiritual interventions, 23-year-old Jack Wheeler went home to his young wife, who was unaware of those life-saving incidents a half world away. The full story appears in the book The Angel Library.