(car engine roaring) (intense music) - The first Mustang that came to Riverton, why, Jerry bought it.

He was a drag racer.

He liked running hot and heavy, and he run that Mustang right up until the time he went into service.

He was a Mustang man.

(gentle music) (explosion booming) (helicopter blades whirring) When Jerry went to Nam, he was there safely running the forklift and said he just didn't feel right being there, 'cause he was single, no kids.

Some of the married guys were out on the lines getting shot at.

He just never felt right about that.

He always cared about other people.

- He was sending his payroll checks home so he could get another Mustang when he got out.

- [Narrator] "April 8th, 1968.

I will get home about the 15th of September so you can get ahold of Mr. Day at the Ford dealer and have him order a Cobra Mustang GT500 with radio, heater, stereo tape, mag wheels, 428, and a four-speed stick and whatever else Dad thinks it needs.

See what you can do.

Love you all, Jerry."

- [Wayne] Jerry was offered a gunner's position on medevac helicopters.

(helicopter blades whirring) (calm music) - The motto for the unit was "so that others may live."

You flew a mission because the guys on the ground were counting on you.

It's a mission that's bigger than you.

(helicopter blades whirring) - [Narrator] "This is a bad place to be, but I'm getting to be a man the hard way, is what you would do if someone gave you an arm or a leg or a boot being one with a foot inside it and said, 'This belongs to that guy.'

Well, all I do is put it under my seat, and then when we get to the hospital, I give it to the doctor and say, 'This is his' and point to the guy.

This is why I think I might be a little different when I get back.

Love you all, Jerry."

(helicopter blades thwapping) (intense music) - [Art] 24th of July, 1968, tracer rounds started going past the front of the aircraft.

I didn't have to say a word.

Jerry opened up on machine gun, and the next thing I knew, Jerry had stopped firing.

(jarring music) That's when I looked back and saw that he was slumped over.

(somber music) The angle of the bullet hitting his helmet was such that it didn't, you know, penetrate into his head but just drove the helmet, you know, into his, you know, forehead causing the severe brain damage.

(calm music) - They say, "This young man, he'll never remember anything from the time he got hit on.

He will be basically a vegetable, and he will probably not last over a maximum of three years" and he would die.

- My parents told them that they wanted to bring him home, and the doctors said that there was no way that they would be able to take care of him.

- Dad told him, he says, "I want my kid."

"Well, he's only gonna last three years."

"Fine," he says.

"He can die at home."

You'd have to come up with a million-dollar bond, and the Ford dealer, who we used to haul fuel for at that time, just offered to Dad.

He says, "Les, I will put up the million-dollar bond.

You go get your kid."

- My mom and I flew out to see him, and he wasn't in very good shape.

- [Wayne] He didn't have a smile.

He just had a straight deadpan face.

No happiness, no humor, no nothing, very hard to get along with in a sense.

As he got better, doing a little better thinking and better moving and what have you, he said, "You know, we need to get my Mustang."

So Jerry ordered his '71 Ford Mustang Mach 1, his big blue Mustang.

(lively music) Even though he knew he may not be able to drive it, that was an inspiration to him.

Said, "Jerry, if you're gonna get these legs working, if you're gonna drive that 'Stang," and "Yeah, okay."

(lively music) (car engine revving) - [Donna] Hey, Jerry Lee, what you doing?

- I'm gonna drive my Mustang.

- [Donna] Cool.

Are you excited?

- Oh, I'm ready.

- [Donna] Good!

(dramatic music) (spectators cheering) - Between the two of us helping him, why, he took off in that Mustang and started grinning from ear to ear, and that sucker never broke.

(gentle music) (car engine rumbling) He had a darn good life, and the Mustang was part of his life.

The thing that made a hero out of Jerry to me was that I never once heard him complain.

He always felt that it was just the way things were for him doing his duty.

- When Jerry came home, the doctors gave him three years, and we had him for 47.

(gentle music) - [Wayne] Coming back as messed up as he was from the war just shows what love, family can do.

(gentle music continues) (wind whooshing)