Served in the US Army during the Korean War as a paratrooper. He was captured and shot by the enemy and left for dead in a mass grave. A penny in his pocket stopped the bullet from killing him. He later crawled out of the pile of his dead comrades and returned to the fight. Only to be wounded by a grenade in combat that left him blind for two years and in which he lost an eye. As a civilian, he later survived a plane crash that killed everybody else.