Rod “Doc” Fink was a Fleet Marine Force Navy Corpsman attached to 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, serving as Senior Corpsman of Alpha Company. The battalion fought in major operations and battles along the DMZ, including Con Thien, Gio Linh, The Rockpile, and the 77-day Siege of Khe Sanh.
After Vietnam he struggled with PTSD, and in 2008 he nearly died from cancer caused by Agent Orange. Today he shares that story with others, speaking to community groups, and it appears in the book Courage and Honor: True Stories of Strength, Triumph and Inspiration. He is active with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Temecula and the Marine Corps League in Wildomar.
A Life Member of the Association and a past member of its Board of Directors, Doc chairs the Historical Preservation Committee and serves as the Association’s historian, collecting the stories of the Marines and Corpsmen of the battalion known as The Walking Dead.