Earl “Dusty” Trimmer was a combat infantry soldier in the Vietnam War from 1968–1969. He considers himself still a soldier. As a combat infantryman, often he walked at the head of the combat mission as the point man during the bloodiest year of the Vietnam War, 1968.

Since his return from Vietnam in 1969, he has faced near-death run-ins almost as often as he faced them in Southeast Asia. After suffering a 2006 collapse in a Cleveland VA, he filed a claim for PTSD. His quality of life has continued with detours and roadblocks from the VA because of countless claim DENIALS.