What a Young Soldier Promised God After a Vietnam Mine Took His Legs
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Vietnam War, then 20-year-old Jon Hovde was nearly killed when his vehicle struck an anti-tank mine. Doctors didn’t expect him to survive, but that day Jon made three promises to God.
What happened next would shape the rest of his life and inspire the people back home who knew him best. Linda, from Jon’s hometown of Fertile, Minnesota, shares his story.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:20.7 | And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:23.6 | Reader's Digest has been searching all across America for places that have great stories about nice people. |
| 0:30.6 | They call these towns the nicest places in America. |
| 0:34.6 | We bring one such story, and it comes from a small town in Minnesota called, |
| 0:40.3 | of all things, Fertile. And a native there tells us why her small town is one of the nicest places |
| 0:47.3 | in America. |
| 0:48.3 | Hi, my name is Linda, and here is why I think Fertile is one of the nicest places in the United States. |
| 0:57.0 | We live in a small community in northwest Minnesota population approximately 800 people. |
| 1:05.0 | Fertile has no traffic lights, everybody knows your name, and we believe our town has the biggest heart. |
| 1:12.7 | We have many residents infertile that we could talk about, that one man John Havdi touched all |
| 1:18.3 | our lives in some way or another. John was born in 1947, spending all his childhood in fertile. |
| 1:25.9 | He graduated from Ferdal High School in 1965. After graduation John moved to California and |
| 1:33.3 | that is where he met his future wife Darlene and they would go on to be |
| 1:37.4 | married happily for 49 years. In 1967 at the age of 19 |
| 1:43.3 | John ended the army and was sent to Vietnam. |
| 1:47.3 | He did not need to go because he was his mother's only son, but he wanted to fight for God and country. |
| 1:54.4 | He was driving a personnel carrier and was alone inside the driver's compartment. |
| 2:00.2 | His carrier hit a mine and the explosion ripped through the 3.5 inch steel bottom of the carrier. |
| 2:06.6 | John did not know at that time that his left leg had been blown off above the knee and his left arm just below the shoulder. |
| 2:14.6 | While on an ice blanket, Johnny made three vows to God if his life would be spared. |
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