One More Chance

There’s a saying that every dog deserves one bite. That might not apply, of course, if you’re the one he’s biting, but that’s neither here nor there.

The point is that tolerance toward animals is an important aspect of the beast-love era. Perhaps even to the degree of allowing as many as two bites.

Less fortunate is the biting man or, in this case, the punching man. He’s not forgiven as easily as a dog when he lands a haymaker on another guy’s jaw, unless he’s famous.

Witness the case of Terry Gray, holder of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart from the Vietnam War. He landed one punch in self-defense and lost his future.

It happened last November. Gray, who is a trim 53 with haunted blue eyes, thought the man was attacking him and dropped him with one punch. Bad idea. It took place at the VA’s Westside Medical Center, where the puncher was a groundskeeper and the punchee a hospital patient. The puncher was fired.

That could have ended it. A punishment fitting the crime, a lesson well taught. But there’s more here.

Gray was on his way back from midnights as black as hell when the incident occurred. Once jobless, he had work. Once homeless, he had a place to live. Once a drunk, he was sober.

But maybe even more important, Terry Gray, a man with a war burning in the core of his memory, had at last found a reason to go on living.

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Gray was the man of the moment seven years ago. We celebrated him. The VA honored him. And then. . . .

His story goes back to the Vietnam War. As an airborne infantryman, combat left scars on his soul that even time couldn’t erase.

He came out of it with an arm wound and a medal for having saved a whole squad of men by taking on the enemy single-handed. But medals don’t buy peace, and Gray began hitchhiking around the country, running from the pictures in his head, trying to escape darkening memories.

He got as far as L.A. where he was shot in the side during a barroom brawl and ended up at the VA Hospital. There he was treated for the wound, for alcoholism and for the post-traumatic stress disorder that was tearing him apart.

When the program was concluded, he found himself sober but homeless again, camping in the bushes near the facility’s weed-infested golf course. It was providential.

Gray had worked as a greenskeeper in his prewar days and couldn’t stand the sight of the mess at the L.A. facility. One patient said the golf course looked like a mortar-impact area there were so many gopher holes.

Gray began cleaning it up on his own and did so well he was hired by the VA. He not only got rid of the weeds and the gophers, he built a patio, constructed walls, reconditioned putting surfaces and made the place look like new.

The veterans who used the course called it a miracle. Gray had a home and a job now. But the embers of a war-induced rage still burned.

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The way Gray tells it, a VA patient who volunteered in the clubhouse was stealing money. The course had been opened to the public by then and was profitable. Gray took special pride in what he’d created and confronted the man.

He says the guy came at him with a golf club and shoved a pencil in his face. Gray decked him. Others testified to what happened and the VA cops decided it was self-defense. The city attorney’s office refused to file charges.

Letters of support came in and petitions were signed, but they didn’t hold weight with the VA. They fired Gray. It was like ripping a baby from his arms. Batter a guy with that kind of disappointment who is already struggling with flashbacks to Armageddon and you’ve got a man in deep emotional pain.

That’s where Gray is now. The tendency to drown himself in booze is never far away. He’s a man teetering on the edge.

Gray has appealed the firing. Philip Thomas, CEO of the VA Health Care System, says he’s looking into the incident. He admires Gray for the way he rehabilitated himself and the course, “but there’s no circumstance where I can justify a worker punching out a patient.” He says he’ll decide soon.

Anyone who has seen combat bears burdens. I can tell you about nightmares. I can tell you how it feels to wake up screaming. I’m not saying what Gray did was right. I’m just saying we give second chances to dogs, athletes, killers, politicians and Hollywood celebrities.

Maybe we owe a little something to a guy who risked his life to save others. Courage deserves acknowledgment beyond a medal. Gray has earned another chance.

Al Martinez’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached online at al.martinez@latimes.com