"The bayonet at the end of his rifle went right into my leg," said Maxey, who served in the U.S. Army.

At the time, Maxey was just 13 years old.

It wasn't the only wound the teenager received between 1942 and 1945. He also was shot in both arms, for which he was given two more Purple Hearts.

If that weren't enough, from May to August 1942, Maxey and his older brother were Japanese prisoners of war until a typhoon destroyed the prison camp, allowing them to escape.

When Maxey was discharged from the Army in September 1945, he was just 16 years old -- and he wasn't finished fighting for his country.

Maxey, Salina, is a veteran's veteran, a career soldier who fought in three wars -- World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and was a prisoner of war in two of them. During 31 years of service, he was awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses, four Silver Stars and nine Bronze Stars for valor, a Commendation Ribbon, and a staggering 12 Purple Hearts for three wounds in World War II, four in Korea and five in Vietnam.

Every Nov. 11, Maxey pulls out his old Army uniform, which still fits him, and proudly wears it to Veterans Day ceremonies at Sunset Park.

He regrets that more people don't attend veterans' ceremonies on this most sacred of military days.

"There was a time they had parades on Veterans Day," said Maxey, 78. "Now they don't celebrate it as much as they used to."

Going to war at 13

Maxey was born in the Philippines, the son of a former cavalry soldier who had been appointed superintendent of schools for the provinces of Davao, Surigao and Agusan. Maxey was a high school freshman and in junior ROTC when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

"I was only 13, but I knew how to shoot, so my father said I was a soldier," Maxey said.

About 250 men of all ages took up positions on a beach to defend Davao City. Within days, that number was down to 49. The survivors moved to the Dole Pineapple Plantation in Bukidnon Province, where they put up a good fight but could not hold back the Japanese attack.

"They threatened to kill the prisoners they'd captured if we didn't surrender," Maxey said.

The men surrendered to the Japanese on May 17, 1942. Barbed wire was put around the plantation, and the men became prisoners of war. Once a day at noon, Maxey remembered, their Japanese captors fed them a small bowl of rice and a cube of soy sauce seasoning.

In August 1942, a typhoon whipped into the Philippines, destroying the makeshift POW camp. In the chaos, Maxey and his older brother Ramon took off running, not daring to look back. Several miles up the road, they ran into a group of Filipino soldiers and their American advisers, who whisked the boys to safety.

Maxey continued to fight the Japanese for the next three years, before the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan ended the war.

He missed the Army

After being discharged from the Army, Maxey worked as a deck engineer on a U.S. Navy civilian-operated transport ship. It wasn't long before he missed the Army so much that he decided to re-enlist. He was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division in Japan, where he trained South Korean soldiers to fight the invading North Koreans.

In June 1950, Maxey's division landed on Inchon, South Korea, just to the right of the U.S. Marines, and advanced to Seoul. While in Seoul, Maxey spotted a North Korean soldier and chased him into an alley. The soldier turned suddenly and fired his AK-47, shattering both of Maxey's kneecaps.

Maxey spent the next three months in a San Francisco hospital, where he had both kneecaps replaced -- and met his first wife, Janice, who worked at the hospital. He easily could have spent the rest of the Korean war working a desk job, but as soon as he could walk without aid he requested to be sent back to his old unit.

"Soldiering was my profession," he said matter of factly. "Getting wounded was part of it. Not that I wanted to get hit, but it was part of it."

A prisoner once more

Not long after Maxey was sent back, his unit was ambushed by the Chinese, and for the second time he found himself a prisoner of war.

He was treated somewhat better by his Chinese captors, many who spoke English well. Prisoners were fed rice with some vegetables and even were offered cigarettes, "although the tobacco was all stalks," he said.

After eight months as a POW, Maxey was part of a prisoner exchange in August 1953. When he returned, Maxey found that his wife had given birth to their first son, Thomas.

After returning to the U.S., Maxey was assigned to the Presidio of San Francisco with the 6th Army Honor Guard. He was put in charge of the exhibition drill team that presided at funerals in the Presidio and outside the San Francisco area.

During the next 10 years, he was assigned to a variety of military duties, including the U.S. Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, Ga., where he studied heavy weaponry, and the Combat Experimentation Center at Fort Ord, Calif., where he was part of a team experimenting in tactics and vehicle reconnaissance work.

In the early 1960s, Maxey was assigned to the U.S. Augmentation Center in Germany, where he was promoted to command sergeant major of the 7th Battalion. However, he was demoted to sergeant first class after punching his battalion commander in the mouth.

"He called me a son of a bitch, so I decked him," Maxey said. "I was downgraded two ranks and took a temporary pay cut of $600 a month. But I didn't get court-martialed."

Three tours in Vietnam

In 1968, at age 39, Maxey requested assignment to Vietnam, where he became a platoon leader to Troop B, 3rd Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry. He did three tours of duty with the outfit, or three years.

Maxey and his platoon were involved in numerous fire fights, and Maxey received an individual South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for assisting in the medical evacuation of about 80 seriously wounded rubber plantation workers injured by a booby trap.

He also was shot five more times, which included a bullet that entered his neck and broke his jaw and a bullet that imbedded itself in his right thigh; it rests there today.

"I guess I didn't learn," Maxey said with a laugh.

It was a wonderful life

After Vietnam, Maxey was assigned to administrative duty at Fort Riley. He retired from the Army on March 1, 1977, and decided to move to Salina to be near his two oldest boys, "who decided to marry Salina girls," Maxey said.

Maxey has nine living children, four sons and five daughters. His first wife, Janice, died in 2006.

In Salina, Maxey worked for the employment office, helping find jobs for disabled vets, and then spent 11 years working for the Union Pacific Railroad in Salina and St. Louis.

Maxey belongs to the Salina American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans' organizations, and he and his second wife, Ardean, try to attend veterans' events around the state whenever possible.

"When we go to these events, wives come up to us and thank him for helping get their husbands home," Ardean Maxey said. "This is the most important thing to him -- not what he did in battle, but for what he did to bring his men home."

Despite suffering 12 wounds, being a POW in two wars, and seeing many of his buddies die in battle, Maxey said he has no regrets.

"It was a wonderful life," he said. "And I'm still here."

nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.