Bill Hatfield of Hinton knows what it’s like to die.
The 57-year-old retired law enforcement officer had what is perhaps the ultimate experience and lived to tell about it: the cessation of life’s processes.
And it all came about because of his weakened heart condition brought on by his service in the Vietnam War.
Drafted into the U.S. Army in March 1966, Hatfield was exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant used to kill the jungle vegetation near the Cambodian border. He served with the 1st BN, 18th Infantry, and 1stInfantry Division, known as the Big Red 1.
“Where the Navy and Air Force planes had sprayed the chemical is where we went through on search and destroy missions,” Hatfield recalled. “The jungle was Viet Cong infested, and we served in the offensive operations of the Iron Triangle.”
He explained, “The chemical killed the vegetation, turned it brown. Mass areas of jungle were reduced to dead vegetation. It also took its toll on the American soldiers, many of whom are still being treated for cancerous masses caused by the exposure to the toxic chemicals. Even the children of the soldiers developed health problems years after the war ended.”
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Hatfield is no stranger to death. His life has been laden with human tragedy. His wife, the late Deanna Lawrence Hatfield was killed in an automobile accident Jan. 23, 1992, at Harkers Island, N.C.
His uncle Robert Lee Hatfield was killed on Pork Chop Hill in Korea; his grandfather, the late James “Lonie” Hatfield of New Richmond in Wyoming County, fell from a swinging bridge on Guyandotte River in 1954; his two sisters, Betty Jean and Dianna Sue Hatfield, died in a flash flood in New Richmond during the infamous flood of 1957; a niece, Terri Lynn Lefler, 16, died of a cerebral hemorrhage following an accident at Mullens High School in 1983; his cousin, Donna Sue Haynes, died of a broken neck during a freak accident in Akron, Ohio, in 1972 while swinging on a jump rope in her family’s basement. A few months later, Hatfield’s father, Billy Keith Hatfield, died in a mine explosion at Itmann No. 3 Mine near New Richmondon Dec. 16, 1972.
“My father was 44 years old, but he was the oldest man on the section,” Hatfield recalled of the mishap. “The shift was over, and the men were on their way out when the mine exploded.”
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Hatfield now spends his days on a motorized scooter as a result of deteriorated heart muscles. He could use a heart transplant, but he really doesn’t want one. “There’s no guarantee it would prolong my life, so I’d rather take my chances one day at a time.”
The former Army sergeant is known as “Uncle Bill” to the Summers County Bobcats. He keeps a supply of bubblegum in a basket on the front of his scooter. He is an avid supporter of basketball games and other school activities.
Hatfield died May 10, 1990, at the East Carolina University School of Medicine Hospital unit while undergoing a second heart catheter–ization procedure. “They thought I had blockage in my heart arter–ies,” he recalled. “I went into full cardiac arrest on the operating table.”
He added, “I died. I had the death experience. I roseand looked down and saw the doctors and nurses working on my body. I saw the whitest light, and I started floating toward it. It was the most peaceful feeling I’d ever experienced. I heard the most beautiful singing, but I can’t tell you one word they were singing. I understood it then, but I don’t recall the words. I believe it was the heavenly choir coming to carry me on home.”
Hatfield was gone for about two minutes when the surgeons shocked the patient twice. “When I opened my eyes, the nurse had my head cradled in her arms and had a wet towel around my face and head. That’s when I heard one of the doctors say, ‘We got you back now; you’re going to be all right.”
As a result of the death experience, Hatfield has developed a new attitude about life. The former chaplain with the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department still had doubts in his mind there was an afterlife, but “there’s no doubt now.’
“I just thank the Good Lord every day.”
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Have no fear of dying. That’s the mantra now of Bill Hatfield of Brooks, near Hinton. Known as “Little Bill” during his boyhood in New Richmond in Wyoming County, the former U.S. Army sergeant died on the operating table in 1990, an out-of-body experience the grandfather says he will never forget.
Hatfield never saw God. Still, he says it was a kind of religious experience he will never forget.
“When the doctor said I was going to be all right, I asked ‘Why?’ It was such a wonderful experience; I just wanted to go on.”
He added, “I don’t fear death. We all feel the sting of death, I felt it too. Like my chest was exploding, but it was still wonderful. In a way, the Lord told me that He loved me.”
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Top o’ the morning!