[audio logo] NARRATOR: Coming up on Keystone Stories, honoring veterans.

[music playing] [audio logo] Support for Keystone Stories comes from Tom and Sara Songer of the Torron Group in State College, a proud supporter of programming on WPSU.

More information at torrongroup.com.

The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

Center County Historical Society with support from Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.

Andy and Chris Bater.

The following endowments and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Welcome to Keystone Stories.

In this episode, we'll explore how Pennsylvanians honor the brave men and women who have served their country.

With nearly 700,000 veterans calling Pennsylvania home, each of them carry a powerful and unique story of service.

[gentle music] SGT.

ADAM HARTSWICK: I'm going to tell you a story.

The story is mine, but it's also theirs, and it's also ours.

I grew up in Central Pennsylvania.

[engine revving] It's beautiful here.

The mountains and valleys are familiar to me.

My family's been in this town for generations.

There's even a street that bears our name.

I come from a long line of military service.

My great grandfather served in World War I as an army medic.

Grandpa Hartswick fought with the Army's Americal Division in the South Pacific, and my grandpa Hummel fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

My dad served in the army from 1979 until 2015.

I graduated from State College Area high school in 2009.

Like 6 of my classmates, I enlisted.

I joined the Army because it was a calling and to honor my family's military legacy.

Basic training was in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Then I was off to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to complete my advanced individual training to become a medic.

I wanted to help my brothers and sisters on the battlefield.

Then I was off to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas at the end of 2010, where I was assigned to the first Armored Division.

We deployed to Iraq in 2011.

It was my first time serving in a combat zone.

I was a part of one of the last combat units to leave Iraq during Operation New Dawn.

My second deployment was to Kandahar, Afghanistan, a year later.

I was promoted to senior medic and oversaw training and managing all platoon medics.

Anybody that's honest about deployments, will tell you that it's terrifying, it's fun, it's exciting, it is nerve racking, and sometimes you see that you have the worst day of your life.

You absolutely can have your worst day of your life in Afghanistan.

[suspenseful music] I'm on guard duty.

We get a radio call.

Our second platoon has been ambushed, and I can hear the fear in the radio operator's voice like, it is a very bad day.

And my gut told me like, OK, I need to go out.

We moved out there and I saw the remnants of several US soldiers.

And they were wearing the same camouflage I was wearing, but I couldn't identify what was left of my 3 brothers that at that moment, and I really froze in that moment.

I'm not afraid to say that because it was the first time I had seen somebody so close to me truly gone, dead, killed.

(ON RADIO): They originally reported the IED strike to our personnel.

(ON RADIO): You up?

(ON RADIO): Weather is green, and you had launch approval at this time.

(ON RADIO): Roger, we have launched and weather.

Thanks.

Team leader Jeff Baker walked up behind me, and despite his senior rank, he always insisted that we call each other by our first names.

And he goes, Adam, we're going to get our brothers out of here.

And he puts his hand on my shoulder, and it just brings me back into the moment and reminds me of why I'm there.

No matter what, living dead or otherwise, you don't leave anybody behind.

So Jeff moves out, and all of a sudden, another device goes off.

And then the blast, knocks me down, and I just see him disappear in a cloud of dust.

(ON RADIO): There's another strike.

(ON RADIO): Coming down low, guys.

(ON RADIO): Roger, sir.

My one buddy helps me stand back up, and he dusts me off and he says, doc, where are you?

And I'm like, I'm in Afghanistan, let's get to work, and I run out, and I treat the newly wounded.

I have some of the infantrymen out there.

Come grab the guys I've been treating, and they pull him back to the trucks.

I go back to the safe area, and I hear one of the other EOD team members say that Jeff is down in this river that was just beyond where I was.

And I was like, oh, I have to get down there right now or Jeff's going to drown.

Not realizing what had happened at this point.

And I immediately make a beeline down what I think is a cleared path, and I step on a device myself.

[helicopter whirring] (ON RADIO): Another blast!

It's too close.

(ON RADIO): Clear left.

[helicopter whirring] In that moment, I land on my stomach, and I keep trying to push up as hard as I can, and all my buddies are just shouting at me, doc, just stay down, man.

We got this.

You're fine.

And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm good, I'm good.

And finally, I pushed up so hard that I fell over my snapped off skeletal kneecaps and what was left of my lower legs.

And I'm laying on my back, and I look down and I can see that I'm very much going to die if I don't do something very soon.

And in that moment, it was like time froze for me.

I was given a cosmic choice by God to live or die at this point.

And then one of my buddies got up to me and he just said, doc, tell me what to do.

And I said, tourniquet.

It's high and tight, which is the phrase we always use in training.

And I was very fortunate that before this deployment, I had trained everybody in my battalion.

So everybody knew what to do, especially the guy that got to me.

He was absolutely hot on all of his skills.

(ON RADIO): All right.

Coming back around left.

(ON RADIO): Clear left.

[helicopter whirring] (ON RADIO): CHOP operations, Dustoff 68, SATCOM.

(ON RADIO): Alright, we're going in, guys.

[wind whooshing] Fortunately, the helicopter had made the courageous decision to basically land right next to me after they saw me getting blown up.

They were already en route to pick up the guys I had been treating, and now they came to save me instead.

So it's me and one of my buddies.

[wind whooshing] I'm on this flight and it's just, if I fall asleep, I'm going to die.

So in my mind, I'm just, stay awake, stay awake, stay awake, stay awake.

And it's the hardest fight of my life, just to stay awake.

Finally, they take me off the bird, unload me, and there's just 4 beautiful nurses and one handsome Chad doctor working on me, and it's just-- I know I'm in good hands at this point.

I keep telling them all that, you're all beautiful.

You're all angels.

Please give me all the good stuff.

Treat me well.

I was trying to butter him up.

And honestly, I was just trying to have a sense of humor about it, because I knew that it was bleak already.

And I knew that they've seen some pretty horrible stuff before.

And in my mind, I wanted to live, and so I was doing everything I could to live.

And they put the mask on me, and then I count back from 100.

I wake up a couple hours later, surrounded by a couple of my wounded friends from that day.

And I hear a voice, and I'm very messed up on pain meds at this point.

And he says, Hartswick, how are you doing?

And I said, good, dude, how are you?

And he says, well, I'm a 3-star general, but you can call me dude if you want.

It turned out it was General Milley, the ISAF commander.

He said, son, I heard about what you did today.

I'm here to battlefield promote you to Sergeant.

And so right then and there, in front of my battalion command, the ISAF commander, General Milley, promoted me from E4 to E5 sergeant.

And I got my Purple Heart, and then he said, we're going to look into getting you another award as well.

During the recovery, they do so much for your morale.

They bring like celebrities through.

They bring VIPs through.

They can never tell you who's coming to visit when they're part of the executive cabinet.

They just tell you that a VIP is coming through, and VIP means executive cabinet in our line of work.

And my dad and my mom are with me this day.

My dad being the hardcore military republican that he is, and then my mom being the very hardcore liberal hippie that she is, my dad jokingly says, hey, if it's President Obama, you should ask him if he wants your autograph.

You're an American hero now.

And I said, oh yeah, I'm not going to do that.

And my mom's like, yeah, you shouldn't do that.

That's rude.

[chuckles] And lo and behold, there comes a knock at the door.

Hey, President Obama's here, can we let him in?

And I was like, sure, [chuckles] certainly.

And my dad gives me this look, and he's like-- And my mom's like-- And so I was like, I'm going to do it.

And so he comes up, and he gives my mom a hug.

He shakes my dad's hand, and then he shakes my left hand, because my right hand is just completely covered at this point.

And I say, sir, would you like my autograph?

And he's like, well, certainly.

And his aide, hands him his business card or something, and I sign the back of it and I give it to him.

We got a picture with him, and it was just really wholesome.

He was an incredible human being.

I see why people like him so much, especially when you meet him in person like that.

[gentle music] Recovery was the hardest thing I did at that point in my life.

The team at Walter Reed was amazing.

We all learned to walk when we're younger, but we don't remember much of it.

It's much harder the second time you have to do it with the prosthetic legs.

[gentle music] [engine revving] This community has welcomed me back in so many ways.

[engine revving] So there was just an outpouring of support.

So many fundraisers raised so much money for my family, and when it happened, I didn't think I would ever get that much support, but I did, and so much love and charity and kindness was given to me that I could never repay it, but I do my very best all the time to pay it forward.

There was nothing crazier than when I went out and walked out on the field for the military appreciation game in 2013.

ANNOUNCER: One of the truly emotional moments in the stadium this season, when Adam Hartswick was a part of the coin toss here at Beaver Stadium to an emotional standing ovation.

Tens of thousands of people cheering for me, and it was just an incredible moment.

Just a truly incredible moment.

[gentle music] I retired from the military in 2015.

This was around the time that I met my best friend and soulmate, Sarah, and 6 years later, we were married.

I think the best way to describe Adam is he's very candid.

He's just a very genuine person.

We live life really well together.

[chuckles] I'd say my highest high is meeting my wife, Sarah, because I believe for the longest time that I could do a lot of this on my own.

I found Sarah, who's the love of my life.

When I'm in deep in those valleys of my trauma, she's the one that helps pull me back out.

And when she's in those valleys, I help pull her back out.

So it's like we make a perfect team.

And I would not be who I am today without her.

A lot of people think I take care of him all the time, and that's it.

And it's like, no, he takes care of me, and that's what I try to tell people all the time.

He takes care of me just as much as I take care of him.

It's like we are a team.

Our love and the life we're building together keeps me moving forward.

I train a few times a week to maintain a healthy body and mind.

I think it's easy to have a negative mindset over things that are challenging in your life.

And he's a person who's been able to take some of his own challenges and make his life even better from them, by the way, that he's able to impact other people by his positive attitude and what he's able to do for the community.

And I just aspire to be able to do more things for my community as well, just from getting to see what he's done.

I now teach the same life saving skills I learned in the army, to the deputies at the Pennsylvania Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff Basic Training.

Adam Hartswick brings a lot of passion and a story of resilience to the training academy.

Remember getting all the slack out.

Paul, I want to focus entirely on getting all that slack out of that tourniquet.

Wrench it down.

Remember, this is a very painful act.

We're looking for full blood vessel occlusion when we're applying a target.

Meaning yes, we do want to stop that pulse.

The first time that I met Adam was at a 4th of July, Hometown Heroes Parade, as one of the parade dignitaries.

I was impressed about what he had to endure over a number of years to make it back home and be in that parade.

He truly is a hometown hero.

I mentioned at the start that Hartswick Avenue in State College is named after our family.

I'm humbled to now have a stretch of State route 45 named in my honor.

It's taken time for me to accept being called a hero, because I think the real heroes are the ones that gave their lives on May 14, 2013.

Specialist, Cody Towse, Specialist, Mitch Daehling, Specialist, Willie Gilbert, and Sergeant First Class, Jeff Baker.

We all fought to keep each other alive, but they gave the ultimate sacrifice that day.

And I will carry their memory with me for as long as I live.

In 2017, WPSU hosted the Vietnam Traveling Wall, a scaled down version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

Over 4 days in October, the Traveling Wall welcomed over 8,000 visitors.

[somber music] Help us.

We pray, make this the beginning of the time of healing that we all seek.

Let this monument and this dedication forever remind us that we will come together to mourn our dead.

We will come together to reach out to our wounded.

We will come together to remember and honor our brave.

I want to take this opportunity to thank WPSU.

These resources that they put behind this event in the last 14 months is truly impressive.

This wall represents 58,000 that paid the ultimate sacrifice.

I believe that most of us have been affected directly or indirectly by this conflict.

We have all waited a long time to heal.

[gentle music] It's important because a lot of vets can't make it to DC to see the original wall, and I think this is a healing for them.

It's critically important to keep this type of Memorial because it's more than only Vietnam veterans.

It's about patriotism.

It's about our country.

It's about understanding sacrifice.

It's hard to comprehend all the lives that were lost in Vietnam.

It was way before I was born.

But obviously, I've heard about it, and being able to see all the names really lets you get a sense of just all the sacrifices that were made.

I think I came in with a different perspective on the Vietnam War, and I think just talking firsthand to veterans, it gave me like a different outlook on it, and it was a good experience.

I'm glad I came.

[music playing] There's a guy on the wall, his name is Billy Strickland.

He died as a direct result of orders I gave.

He was the first and probably not the last, but he's the one I remember.

So I always go over to Billy.

Just I have to go see Billy.

Everybody's somebody's friend.

Whether you've served with them, whether you didn't serve with them, when you listen to vets talk about their experiences, you can't help but just sit and hear the passion in their voices, the pain, the happiness that they've been able to come home and have a family.

It's an experience you can't get anywhere else, but except in an event like this.

Between the wall in Washington, DC, and this wall, wherever it may be, the first thing I do is walk up and find William Clark Jr.

's name.

He was my best friend on my ship.

And so when I come, I remember that Clark never got to reach age 20.

He never got to have a family.

He never got to live the life that I've got to live 50 years later.

3 of my buddies were killed over there, and I just like to look at the name, and they're there.

I'm here to pay respects to a man that took my dad's place when my dad was serving in the Vietnam War.

When I found his name, it was like I was meeting him.

I didn't know whether to say thank you or I was sorry.

But it was an honor to see his name and find it.

These men put their lives for their country.

And, I mean, I wasn't even born yet, but I wish I could thank them.

I feel this is a way of coming and saying thank you.

We're here on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg.

In the next story from the our town series, we'll explore how this local landmark honors the brave men and women who have served our nation.

TYLER GUM: So the history of the Pennsylvania Military Museum, as far as the grounds, the buildings and the monuments are, in many ways, very layered like, a nesting doll, so to speak.

If you go back to the first one, we really are looking at a machine gun training company during the preparedness movement of World War I. Mr.

Bull is going to be heavily involved in making sure that this preparedness movement doesn't fall on deaf ears locally.

So being well-financed, being well-to-do in the town, he does have obviously some very strong pull in making sure that Boalsburg does its part.

If it wasn't for Colonel Bull, the local men company A, really would not have been able to do what they do.

He's actually buying, out of his own pocket, tack equipment because it's a machine gun mounted horse company, part of the 107th company A machine gun troop.

And eventually, that gets folded into the 28th division.

After World War I, and you come back to the grounds of where the museum is today, you start having reunions.

You start laying these monuments.

Shortly thereafter, World War II, you have a real push for some type of museum.

You have all of these artifacts being collected.

You have all these memories.

You have these monuments.

You have the historic grounds.

And the cornerstone is actually laid in 1968, and the door is open to the public officially in 1969.

So for our staff and team, when we come together with that mission of educating the public on military history.

[trumpet fanfare] We do it through various programs.

Some of them are very kid friendly, where you're very literally climbing through the mud, learning about military life, leadership and communication at our boot camp for kids.

There's no better way to experience history than to feel it and to sense it and to touch it, and that's what we try to bring to those kids programs.

And then our public programs, though that are broadly speaking, for all ages, some of those range from demonstrations and tactical demonstrations, where we actually roll out a reproduction cannon for Civil War time period.

We'll do original pieces as far as the Iraq and Afghanistan period, and have the National Guard or the other military branches bring equipment in and show how it's being used today.

And all of those programs, they're available to everybody.

Some of them have fees, some of them don't.

We're always trying to make sure that the honor, service, and legacy of Pennsylvania's men and women is never forgotten.

Here at the Pennsylvania Military Museum, we're clearly not in Pearl Harbor.

We're clearly not in France.

I can't take you to that place, but I can bring you to the military museum, and I can show you the battleship guns that were on the deck of that ship in Pearl Harbor.

I can show you the Sherman tank that was used in the Hurtgen Forest, and I can even bring you to these monuments of these men and women who sacrificed their lives for all of this.

It's because of that sacrifice and service that as a town, Boalsburg is able to come to the grounds, find peace, find reflection, have a picnic, take your dog for a walk, go to an event.

It's a very nice central hub for everybody to come and enjoy.

[audio logo] Saying thank you for your service is a simple yet powerful way to honor a veteran.

Our final story highlights a local group of volunteers who express their gratitude not only with words, but with a needle and thread.

[upbeat music] Well, Happy Valley Quilts of Valor started in fall of 2015 with just a few of my closest friends here in Center Hall, and has grown to over 70 some members.

We just got a couple brand new members today.

We've been able to honor over 320 veterans since we started, which was way beyond our expectations.

This is my way of giving back.

And I'm a quilter, and I love it, so and this is just fun.

[chuckles] That's the most important thing is fun.

Quilts of Valor Foundation actually was started by a lady in Delaware, Kathryn Roberts, in 2003.

She had a dream, and she saw veterans sitting on the side of the bed, troubled by demons of war, and the next phase of the dream, she saw him being comforted when he was wrapped with a quilt.

[upbeat music] Everyone touches it in some way and has something to give back to the veteran.

It's just a good feeling to know we're giving back to them.

They go and serve for us, and how many people besides their immediate family know what they have done?

And this is our way of showing them how much they mean to us.

[upbeat music] At this time, I would like to honor our veterans with our quilts of valor.

[applause] There's a special honor coming that he doesn't expect.

[laughter] I found out about it a couple of weeks ago from my brother Gavin.

And he said, dad's getting presented with this quilt, and he asked if I could be here.

Left yesterday about 9 o'clock, drove up here about 11 hours, and I'm just really happy I was here for it.

I think it was really surprised.

I think I was really happy.

I know he really wanted me to be here, so I'm really glad I could be here for him.

A lot of skill, a lot of craftsmanship, and I'm sure a lot of time to do these beautiful clothes.

So it's an amazing service that providing.

I can't thank them enough.

The hard work was very hard, and they need to be recognized.

They're amazing, amazing people.

I never heard thank you for your service until about 10 years ago.

It's nice to finally be thanked.

So thank you very much.

[audio logo] Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Keystone Stories.

[music playing] [audio logo]