Veterans
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For Jack Gill, a peek at what he will be driving come November has been like a dream.
The Sioux Falls veteran and Purple Heart recipient, who grew up south of Flandreau, is the only one in the nation who will be driving a new tricked out F150 truck with a full patriotic wrap. He will take possession on Veteran’s Day.
The truck was made available after Gill, 69, was chosen in a contest for the Wounded Warriors Family Support organization. He got to sit in the truck last week when it was on the High Five tour and stopped at Sioux Falls Ford.
“It’s going to be like going from a Model T to the Starship Enterprise. It’s got all the bells and whistles. It’s going to be super truck,” Gill said. The 2018 vehicle with customized lift and hand controls pushes $100,000 in price, he estimates.
He likely will keep his current truck, too, a 1997 F150 with 320,000 miles, so he can have the older truck in Arizona during the winter.
Gill, who attended both Flandreau and Egan high schools before skipping graduating and volunteering to serve in Vietnam, lost both of his legs in a land mine six weeks after getting to the war zone. It was July 18, 1969, and he was 19, the oldest of five with four younger sisters.