Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County. Veteran Thomas Lane says the one thing he learned from the war in Vietnam is to be kind. As the Gilpin County resident talks about his life before and after fighting for his country, his clear blue eyes drift back to the time in the '60s when enlisting seemed to be his best choice.

Now he speaks of recovering from being blasted by a land mine, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, prostate cancer caused by Agent Orange and the pancreatic cancer that was supposed to kill him months ago.

His list of challenges may look daunting, but his list of good fortune is much longer and has carried him through his life to now, believing in the everyday miracles of living and loving.

Thomas was one of the golden boys in his youth. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where his father, Homer Lane, was a pioneer in a twic-a-night editorial show. "The kids harassed me about being a celebrity and called me Homer. It is hard to live up to someone who is a broadcast pioneer."

But Thomas made a name for himself through his athletic prowess. In high school he was on the football, baseball, and track and field teams and excelled. Although he was an adequate student, his teachers were also his coaches and he says he was able to get away with actions that would have more severe consequences to others.

"It was the '60s and I was into pot, rock and roll, and sex. I was popular because of the sports. I had long hair, which was against school rules, but they let me keep it as long as it was pulled back."

When Thomas finished high school he was not sure what he wanted to do next and decided to wait a year before going to college. One night when he was participating in a peace rally, he was arrested for smoking marijuana. Instead of facing the conviction, Thomas enlisted in the army and soon found himself in a foreign land with people who wanted to kill him and his friends.

"I had many mixed emotions at that time. I was pro-military and became an exceptional soldier but when I was in Vietnam I wondered if we were doing the right thing."

Thomas ended up in the 101 First Airborne Division, the radio man, the guy with the pack on his back that signaled to the enemy that he should be taken out. In the spring of 1970 Thomas was at the Ripcord Fire Base which was one of the last great battles of the war and the only one that the United States lost.

Ben Harrison wrote a book called Hell on a Hill Top about the fight and described Thomas as a true American war hero. His battalion was caught at the fire base by the North Vietnamese, who were attacking with ferocity. It was a battle that lasted four and a half months and Thomas says, "Our leadership was being constrained by political forces. There was an inability of American forces to bring resources onto the battlefield."

Out of 500 troops defending the base, 247 were killed, 3 were MIA, and two were left alive in their bunkers when they refused to leave. Of those who remained there was a 90 percent casualty rate. The battalion commander and his first officer were killed. Being the soldier with the radio, Thomas was the last man off the hill when the evacuation helicopters came to remove the troops. He stood his ground until his comrades were safe.

They were in the jungle and helicopters were the only way out. Yes, he was scared, he says. But there was not a time when he wasn't scared. "It was a matter of throwing up, peeing in your pants, and then getting yourself together with some common sense. The experience changed my life. I did not come back the same person."

And that event was just the first 30 days of his time in Nam. He was involved with many fire bases which protected the troops. His work in the field was written up in Stars and Stripes. After 10 months and eight days, one of the members of the Ripcord Fire Base was killed and put in a body bag. The next day, the body was gone.

"They hit us with 500 rounds that day. A firebase is the size of two football fields and there was nowhere to hide. War is outdated The leaders can't provide for our servicemen, saying it isn't in the budget."

When Thomas was 20, he walked over a booby trap and the soldier behind him got hit. Thomas was knocked 10 feet forward, his knee smashed. The other guy was evacuated with both his legs gone. Thomas does not know if he survived.

In the last 45 days of his service, Thomas became a drug counselor; he isn't sure why he was chosen. He says 60 percent of his battalion was using heroin. As a sergeant, he started a drug program and helped a lot of people ease away from the powerful drug that was so available from the North Vietnamese. "It was an epidemic," he says. "About 90 percent of the people came from off the streets and they didn't want to be in the war so they gobbled up what the NVAs were offering."

Working with the soldiers who were struggling with addictions made an impact on Thomas, which would help him later in life, as he endeavored to find what he wanted to do.

After being sent home and discharged, Thomas decided to move to Woodland Park because he had never lived in the mountains before. He was having trouble sleeping, haunted by nightmares, spooked in a crowd, reacting to sonic booms and Fourth of July fireworks. One night his wife-to-be woke up with a black eye where he had jabbed her with his elbow.

Looking for a way to get back in the mainstream, Thomas began a life of moving from job to job and then buying into businesses and selling them within a few years. He worked for Kwal Paints, then moved to Arizona to work for his father for a while. He started a landscaping company, succeeded, and sold it; bought into a Sambo's Restaurant until he sold it. He owned his own restaurant, Tommy's Place, in Prescott, Arizona, and sold that. Another restaurant, then a construction business and then publishing.

"I didn't want to stay in one job. I wanted to try things I've never done before."

In 1994, Thomas retired and moved to Maui, but he was soon bored and opened a gym, where he was a personal trainer to paralysis patients, particularly quadriplegic patient J. Michael Kanouff, who wrote Letters from the Edge. "It was the best thing I have done in my life," says Thomas. "I have impacted many people's lives as a trainer. That's why I am the luckiest person in the world."

In 2008, Thomas left Maui to be with his dying father. He sold his business, again, and after moving back discovered he had prostate cancer. He beat it with alternative medicine, he says; by changing his lifestyle the cancer went dormant.

But then it came back. Last June, Thomas was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer that had jumped to his intestines. He was given a couple weeks to live. Once again, he turned to natural cures, finding the CBD in cannabis gave him relief from pain and helped to shrink the tumor. Although Hospice Care has set him up with a morphine kit, he chooses not to use it, wanting to remain cognizant of the life around him. He lives with his son Adam who has become a lifeline.

In his lifetime he has met people all over the world who are calling him to wish him well. Thomas has many angels in his life, he says. They are facilitating miracles.

Fighting cancer is something that is a combination of attitude and diet and being in balance. He says he knows he can't beat the cancer but he can prolong his life, which he has already done, far exceeding his prognosis.

"I have been honored so much by the veterans’ services, and am grateful for what has been given to me. I don 't look back on anything with remorse. Vietnam taught me you have to walk around with a big stick and heavy foot. There is so much to life and I know I've done more good than bad and I still make four or five mistakes every day.”

Thomas takes his 15-year old Rhodesian Ridgeback service dog Zion for a mile walk every day. He has his Hospice nurse take him to the rec center to work out and then he takes a nap. Knowing that cancer is exacerbated by stress, he doesn't do that. He bathes in Uncle Charlie’s healing waters and has 20 gallons of it in his house. He visits Reseto's Center for Acupuncture and says he started driving again last week.

Some days are lousy, some days are good, but always he thinks of the lesson he learned in the war: being kind is just as easy as not being kind and everyone is important.

"We are all in this together."