RIVERSIDE - It took 42 years, but a Riverside man finally knows what happened the day he was wounded in Vietnam.

“I remember getting shot in the elbow,” said Dan Seijo. “I remember someone saying, 'I gave you a shot of morphine,' but that was the last thing I remembered until I woke up in the 106th General Hospital in Japan.”

Seijo said he was a platoon sergeant serving in Vietnam when he was wounded on Oct. 5, 1967.

“For 40-plus years I never knew what happened,” he said. “I was asking around trying to find out what happened (for many years).”

Seijo said he received a “wakeup call” on Oct. 28, 2009.

“I was waiting for the World Series to come on when the telephone rang,” he said.

Seijo said the man on the phone held the answers he had been searching for.

“He asked if I was Dan Seijo, and then replied that he was Dr. Ken (Kenneth Gates),” Seijo said. “I thought for a second to ask myself who is Dr. Ken, when he asked if I remembered Oct. 5, 1967. A red light came on and I said yes, that it was the day I was shot in Vietnam. He said he was the medic who came to me and gave me my initial care and treated me where I got wounded.”

Seijo said he asked Gates to write up a summary of the events that happened. Gates responded with a letter that detailed how he met Seijo and ended up saving his life.

According to Gates' letter, the platoon was operating out of a forward base camp at Chu-Lai, Vietnam.

“Most of our operations started from a small air strip near Tam Ky,” Gates wrote. “I never knew where we were going to operate, just that it was northwest of the air strip.”

Gates said the terrain was the usual mix of steep hills, heavily wooded with streams in the valleys at the bottom. The first week or so of the operation went smoothly, then one night Gates heard tracked vehicles moving in the dark, the first time he had heard armor moving that didn't belong to the United States.

“We kept working the same area of operations moving to the northeast,” he said. “We weren't making any contact (with enemy soldiers) but were seeing signs of bunkers, spider holes, and well-used trails.”

Gates said at the next re-supply, it was decided that the platoons would no longer work alone, and several of the platoons joined each other forming groups.

“On the morning of Oct. 5, 1967, we began moving down from the hills into a valley of paddy areas mixed with terraced hills with villages on the top,” he said.

Gates said after breaking for lunch, the first platoon came under automatic weapons fire. Gates was about 100 yards back and halfway down a bald hill. The first platoon had just entered a paddy area, and they were walking down a dike with trees on one side and a 4-foot drop-off on the other. They had taken fire from behind the drop-off, and two troops were lying on the ground.

“We watched them get up and start to move on line towards the drop,” he said. “Suddenly an arm popped out with an AK in it and sprayed them, with three more troops being hit. They then started rolling grenades over the edge.”

Gates said the second platoon leader radioed the approximate position of the shooter, and after a 15 minute lull a couple of troopers went over the edge and fired into a tunnel the shooter had gone into. Nothing was found except footprints, and the platoons moved in closer and set up a perimeter to secure the area for the Medevac.

“After the dead and wounded were taken out, we started out again,” he said.

Gates said after about a kilometer, the platoon spotted a village area on top of a small rise. At the top of the rise were huts on two sides of a large, dry field.

“The LT (lieutenant) told me he wanted me to go with the group going to search the village, so I dropped my rucksack and took my aid bag off,” he said. “The point man had only gotten 30 or 40 feet into the field when the firing started. Those that weren't hit dropped and returned fire. The calls for medic started right away. Being number five in line, I had seen the point man go down. His squad leader was trying to get him back, plus return fire at the same time. Between the two of us, we got him back to the dike wall. A shot of morphine and a quick splint and pressing and it was off to number two.”

Gates said he found Seijo with a round sticking out of the skin over his right eye and a shattered elbow. A quick morphine and dressing and Gates was off to number three of the wounded soldiers, the M-60 gunner.

“When I rolled him over to check the entry wound, I must have raised up a little too far, as the next thing I remember is being 10 feet away with no helmet and blood running down my left side,” he said.

Gates said he found his helmet with a hole in it and five additional shots through the gunner's chest. He could do nothing for the gunner. After crawling back to the main group, Gates patched up a couple more minor wounds. The platoons began to fall back to a more secure position, with Gates and another trooper moving Seijo.

“It was one of those moments that you remember for a lifetime, trying to move across an open area with mud almost to your knees and people shooting at you,” he said. “Everything seemed to go into slow motion. About halfway across, I could hear the pitch of the AK fire change. Rounds hit the mud to my right. Dan gave a jerk as another round hit him in the left side. We finally reached the other side and fell over the dike. The last of the platoon that had been providing cover fire made it across and set up a defensive perimeter.”

Gates said he got the wounded together and reinforced the treatment that had been started at the beginning of the firefight. A Medevac had been set up, but wasn't able to make the landing zone for almost an hour due to artillery and air strikes.

“A front was moving in with heavy rain and high wind so it was going to be a one-shot deal,” he said. “When all the wounded were loaded, I think there were 12 people aboard.”

Gates said that was the last time he saw Seijo. Then, in October 2009, Gates saw Seijo's name in a veterans publication and called him.

“It had been 42 years since we had spoken, but we stayed on the phone for almost an hour,” Gates said.

Seijo said he and Gates have spoken several times since.

“It blew my mind when Ken called,” he said. “He told me everything I wanted to know.”

Seijo said he feels like 10 years have been added to his life because of how good it feels knowing the history of what happened the day he was wounded.

A military news publication from November 1967 said Gates braved enemy fire to aid five wounded paratroopers, refusing aid for himself until they had been evacuated. Gates refused to leave on the first Medevac helicopter, fearing that one more person aboard might be too many for the helicopter to carry. He was evacuated on another helicopter, his own wounds untreated.

“I don't think Ken got as many awards as he deserved,” Seijo said. “I feel he went above and beyond. He got wounded carrying me and saved five lives. I feel he deserves more recognition for his heroic acts, at least the Soldier's Medal (awarded for risking one's life to save another's). If not for him, I would not be on Mother Earth.”