Howard Banks has seen his fair share of danger and lived to tell about it.
The Second World War veteran lost his eyesight at age 20, when he was blinded by a flare during the battle of Iwo Jima. While the injury ended his military career, Banks has remained a proud American and an even prouder Marine ever since.
So it's no surprise he was upset when vandals tried to tear down the U.S. and Marine Corps flags that fly outside of his Texas home. It's not the first time they've targeted him, Banks had to replace his old flags after they were stolen, shredded and thrown in a ditch.
When Banks heard intruders out on his lawn earlier this month, he wasn't going to let them get away with it again. The Marine charged onto his front porch, and he thinks that "must've startled them," because the vandals attacked him and fled.
"They could see me. I couldn't see them," said Banks. "I turned and looked in the other direction, and about then "“ "˜wham!' They knocked me down," he told CBS News.
It was a terrifying experience, but Banks's community has rallied around him since then.
Find out what happened when his fellow marines visited him on the next page!
Banks was left with a twisted knee and bruises along one side of his body after his fall, but of course this Marine hasn't let that slow him down.
"On this forearm, it's kind of sore and rough," he said. "Both of them. I've still got soreness here, but I'm durable. I can take it."
Banks's daughter, neighbors and local police have all rallied around him, and they hope that a new security camera will keep him - and his flags - safe from now on.
But other Marines also wanted to show their respect for Banks. A group of them, younger members of the Corps who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, surprised Banks with a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the National World War II Memorial.
One of them, Kory Ryan, said that it's "a shame" to see a fellow veteran treated this way. "People should be lined up on his porch to talk to him," he says, "not ripping his flags down."
Despite his injuries, Banks has no plan to stop flying his flags anytime soon. "We've honored our flag all that time and doggone it, with our political climate the way that it is," he says, "we need something to rally around and that's our flag."
As Banks says himself: "Once a Marine, always a Marine."
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