Eddie Beesley joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Vietnam; where he was seriously wounded.  Eddie Beesley is the author of Lucky Enough.

According to the book description of Lucky Enough, “When Eddie Beesley's dreams of college on a basketball scholarship were dashed, he quit high school and joined the Marines.  Motivated by opportunity and achievement, Eddie reveled in the physical and intellectual challenges offered by the Corps.  He excelled in athletics, pursued an education and embraced the vigorous lifestyle of a young man in the military.  He loved being a part of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines living and training in Hawaii in the early 1960s.

Then things began heating up in Vietnam.   Delta Company waded ashore at Chu Lai in May 1965.  It wasn't long before the confusing politics of Southeast Asia began to impact the young men who served there.  Ready, willing and able to triumph over the enemy, Delta Company spent their days on patrol and their nights on guard duty wondering why they were not being allowed to fight and win.   Their first losses were accidents.  They were assigned to protect the Chu Lai Airstrip during Operation Starlite in August.

Then, on August 31, 1965, Delta Company went on patrol in force.  Corporal Eddie Beesley's life changed that day. 

Lucky Enough is the story of a remarkable man who spent a lifetime living despite wounds that might have destroyed a less determined person.  Grim though his launch into adulthood at the tender age of nineteen was, Eddie reflects on the blessings he enjoyed -- a loving wife, children and grandchildren, friends and a business.   His journey to middle age was a joyous one and yet, there was something he had to do”

According to one reader, “I read "Lucky Enough," Eddie Beesley's autobiographical account of his time in the jungles and hell of Vietnam with my heart in my throat and sweat in my eyes. The sweat in my eyes is a reference to a quote in the book, "Marines don't cry, but sometimes their eyes sweat." So many accounts of the tribulation and suffering and bravery and loss of life and limb has been written about that ungodly war that the politicians would not allow them to win, but "Lucky Enough" is so heartbreakingly personal. You follow Eddie as a young man from Oklahoma to the awful hell in Southeast Asia. You meet his buddies, you feel his desires and his expectations, and finally you are with him when he steps on the land mine which will take both his legs off at the knees. This is not a self-serving book about Eddie's bravery, either in the war, or back home getting his thoughts around the fact that he would never walk again without help. This is a book of courage, understated, a love of God, and the desire to not give up. The not giving up is partly the Marine that he became and partly because of who he was before he joined the Marines; a good man who just wanted to do what was right. If you never read another book about Vietnam, please read this one.”