Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in a series throughout the month of November highlighting veterans’ experiences. Vietnam War veteran Don Hyslop put his love for art on hold when the war draft became an imminent reality in the late 1960s. After high school, a young Hyslop set his sights on becoming a commercial artist, taking art courses at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell and continuing his studies at Texas Tech University. Before completing college, the 21-year-old Hyslop shifted gears by enlisting in the U.S. Navy in his home state of New Mexico. From there, he took a train to San Diego with other recruits and landed at what was then the Naval Training Center in Point Loma, where he volunteered to train as a member of the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) 11 — a specially trained, amphibious-ready group tasked to reconnoiter and eliminate defensive obstacles along shorelines before marines disembarked. His future in art would have to wait. “After completing training in Coronado, we went directly overseas, so there was not a lot of time for expectations,” he said. “It was on-the-job training.” He completed his first tour in Vietnam from May to December 1967 doing survey operations. “It was like it was yesterday,” he said. “We had a good relationship with everyone we were with. I was lucky that none of the people in my unit got killed.” Although his first tour in Vietnam with UDT 11 went smoothly, Hyslop’s second tour, which took place between July and September the following year, was a different story. After completing jump-school training at Fort Benning, Ga. and returning to Coronado for training on Navy SEAL Team One, he was again deployed with the Hotel Platoon to South Vietnam. On Sept. 15, 1968, Hyslop and his unit were rattled by an unexpected ambush while on reconnaissance patrol in the Mekong Delta near the Cambodian border. “It was a shocking ambush,” he said. “We were surprised because we were told that they were friendly in the area we were in.” During the surprise attack, Hyslop was seriously wounded by a shot to his neck — sparing his life, but leaving him a quadriplegic. Following the incident, he was evacuated by air to several hospitals — flying from Qui Nhon, Vietnam to Japan to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas — before ending up at the Long Beach VA Medical Center. At the time, the Long Beach center was the closest VA medical center with a spinal-cord injury center, but Hyslop would soon help change that. In 1981, Hyslop was instrumental in founding the Cal-Diego Paralyzed Veterans Association — a San Diego chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) with a mission to improve the quality of life for veterans of the armed forces with spinal-cord injury or disease. “The reason we formed a chapter here is because we wanted a spinal-cord center here in San Diego. People used to have to go all the way up to Long Beach for treatment,” he said. “We needed to know how many spinal-cord-injured vets were here in San Diego. We had to have 100 members to get a chapter, and now we’re up to 500 members from all over.” PVA’s Cal-Diego chapter was a vital factor in getting the first Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) center to the San Diego VA Medical Center. The center now serves as the hub for spinal-cord-injured veterans and active-duty personnel in San Diego and Imperial counties, Arizona and southern Nevada. “The office is right there in the spinal-cord unit, so when new injuries come in, they see us first about their benefits,” he said. Hyslop has served as the board’s president, vice president and treasurer, and he remains involved as a member on the PVA Cal-Diego’s board, now in its 30th year. In addition to involvement with the PVA, Hyslop reconnected with his love of art after his return from war, taking courses at the University of Houston and later at the Coronado School of Art, where he shifted his focus from commercial art techniques to watercolor painting. His art is featured at the San Diego Watercolor Society’s gallery, located at Hyslop’s old training grounds in the NTC Promenade in Point Loma. He has exhibited his landscape watercolor masterpieces at several juried art shows and exhibits throughout San Diego, winning numerous awards for his work. Passing along some of his veteran wisdom to those who serve their country today, he said, “Never let your guard down. Remember you are representing the USA and be proud of your service to your country.”