Jim Hastings, Squad Leader, 3rd Platoon.

Jim Hastings grew up in the working-class town of Framingham, Massachusetts; in a military housing project for veterans and their families. For Jim, all the kids in his neighborhood had fathers who served. After high school, Jim attended Benjamin Franklin tech in Boston to pursue photography. While attending tech school, he joined the Corps. After a 6-month stint guarding munitions depots in the US, he was shipped to Vietnam and assigned to Mike Co. He would rise to become a squad leader and a leader in 3rd platoon, until Feb 13, 1968, during the Tet offensive, which changed his life forever.