A retired Marine who lost an eye and an arm in Vietnam combat is inspiring others to help him build a sanctuary for newly wounded Iraq war veterans on this mountain lake s shore. Georgetown native Clebe McClary, who has turned his life story into a job as a Christian evangelist and motivational speaker, is converting a 1939 stone mountain cottage into his new mission. McClary has spent four decades rebuilding a life shattered in a foxhole when a Viet Cong grenade blew away his left eye and arm.
He feels uniquely qualified to help younger veterans heal their wounded bodies and tortured souls. It has not been an easy road for the 65-year-old former track star, who to some seems like a human dynamo. This year has been harder than Nam, he said, adding that his family also is coping with treatment for leukemia in his beloved grandson Daniel.
If it could be me, it would be all right, but this is tough. As he frets about his grandson s health, which he can do nothing about, he pushes his war-damaged but still athletic body to make a difference in another way. The Lord s been trying to tell me to do this for about 25 years, McClary said.
I didn t want to leave anything with my name on it or build any buildings. Instead, McClary has spent most of his adult life traveling, making more than 200 speeches a year about his near-death experience on a Vietnamese battlefield, his physical triumph over his terrible wounds and his conversion to Christian evangelism. He operates a nonprofit organization, the Clebe McClary Evangelistic Association, which provides a modest income for himself and his wife, Deanna, and pays for their programs.
Both have published books about their experiences, which they sell as part of their ministry. David Beasley, who has known McClary for years, said the retired Marine may have found his ideal calling. Whether they are wounded physically or spiritually, Clebe knows where they've been and what they are going through, Beasley said.
He can provide more help than any medical physician could. On July 3, McClary was juggling the needs of old friends and several dozen volunteers who were helping prepare for an Independence Day celebration. Wyn Harter, who ran track with McClary at Georgetown in the 1950s, arrived with his wife, Diane.
We d run together the 11 miles from Georgetown to Pawleys Island, Harter said. Longtime friend and mentor John Liston said despite only moderate athletic ability, McClary excelled as a one-mile runner. That s the trait you see in a man who pushed himself to a state championship in high school, Liston said.
That steely determination got McClary through his darkest hours, along with tough love from Deanna, whom he had married before shipping out to Vietnam. He relishes the story of the first time they left the hospital. Still wrapped in bandages, and struggling to use the single finger that still worked on his mangled right hand, he stood in the rain, waiting for someone to open the car door.
In his book, Living Proof, McClary recounts his wife s response, which then seemed cruel, but which he now says helped put him on the road to self-sufficiency. I m not going to open doors for you the rest of your life, she told him. You can do it.
It is just such lessons that McClary hopes his new veterans retreat will provide. His guest house will not provide medical care. But he hopes to help teach them the lessons of independent living, and, perhaps, to mend their tortured spirits.
McClary has little patience with people who will not help themselves. And his take-no-prisoners approach to fulfilling his dream at this mountain valley lake has rankled some neighbors. Last week, Lake Lure Mayor Jim Proctor stopped by McClary s Old Stone Manor to tell him that a neighbor had complained about the placement of small American flags on the roadside approaching McClary s driveway.
The old Marine fumed, asking loudly who could possibly object to a flag dedicated to a fallen American soldier. McClary s chosen site for his veterans retreat sits on 8.5 acres of wooded lakefront land.
On one side are modest older homes of middle-class folk. On the other side is an old boys campsite once used to film the movie Dirty Dancing. Today the camp is being turned into posh mountain resort homesites worth millions.
Mayor Proctor said any misgivings about McClary s project stem largely from lack of information. He said McClary has not fully explained his plans. But for a Christian-based outreach to veterans, I think that will be embraced by the majority of our residents, Proctor said.
Current town rules allow a family care home for up to six resident handicapped people with no changes in zoning. Anything larger than that would require rezoning by the town, he said. McClary s structures comprise a 1939 stone cottage and a separate former garage.
He has been busy modifying the cottage for visiting disabled veterans. This is not the building I would have wanted, he said. The garage has been converted into a small apartment for him and Deanna and a large office that contains the memorabilia of his lifetime.
The stone cottage can host three disabled veterans at most. He is still working out solutions for access by wheelchair into a structure that originally had no such access, and other obstacles. His plans are loosely formed.
He talks of raising money to build a structure with suites for the wounded veterans and their families. But his actions so far sound grounded more in faith than a business plan. With the help of inherited coastal property and his own investments, buoyed by soaring coastal land values, the Georgetown County native has substantial personal wealth.
He has mortgaged that property to borrow $3 million to purchase and refit the mountain land and structures to become his veterans retreat. McClary is driven by memories of men like Ralph Henry Johnson, a Charleston native and Marine who died in Vietnam when he threw himself on a grenade to save others. But even more than Johnson, McClary is haunted by the memories of two other men in his platoon who survived the war, only to kill themselves later.
Robert Coulter, a Lake Keowee, S.C., resident and a retired Marine also wounded in Vietnam, drove to Lake Lure last week to tell McClary he would be available to work with the young disabled veterans anytime.
This is the most awesome thing in the world, Coulter said. I remember the periods of depression. But he certainly does.
David MacEachern, pastor of Bat Cave Baptist Church, spent the day with a carpenter s belt strapped around his waist, nailing siding to the new entrance of the renovated garage. It s time for us to step in, MacEachern said. It s a great opportunity for ministry.
No matter how anyone feels about the war, we can help the people injured in the war. Karen Ray, a volunteer from Bat Cave Baptist Church, said the approximately 100 people who showed up from area churches were doing whatever needs to be done. We believe in what he is doing for the veterans, said Ray.
We re just being the hands and feet of Jesus. Wyn Harter, McClary s old friend from high school, said McClary is responding to a need that is dawning on others as well. The politicians are not going to do anything about it.
So people like Clebe will step up and hopefully others will rally around them, Harter said. Like he said to me: I can t help many, but I can help a few, Harter said. Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.
Clebe McClary hopes people with wealth will respond to his efforts to create a haven for soldiers and Marines wounded in battle with money to help build a facility with suites for the visiting veterans. He doubts the government s ability to come to grips with the strains on veterans lives from disability, divorce and addiction. He said he is not seeking government help with his project.
Meanwhile, he has mobilized dozens of adults and teens from churches in the Lake Lure, N.C., area, who showed up last week to get the place ready for his Independence Day celebration.
To learn more about McClary s ministry and how to contact him, visit his Web site at www.clebemcclary.com.
A retired Marine who lost an eye and an arm in Vietnam combat is inspiring others to help him build a sanctuary for newly wounded Iraq war veterans on this mountain lake s shore.
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