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Ex-sheriff recounts war in book
By Stephen Gurr
Staff Writer
Former Forsyth County
Sheriff Denny Hendrix said
writing a book about his expe¬
riences as a teenage soldier in
Vietnam served as an emo¬
tional release.
Hendrix’ new self-pub¬
lished book, “Head-Hunter
One Kilo!,” which he wrote in
collaboration with Charles
Josey, is an unvarnished look
at the life of a grunt from the
perspective of Hendrix, who
was in Vietnam with the 173rd
Airborne Brigade in 1968 and
■ 1969. The book is filled with
j accounts, sometimes grisly, of
the “jungle rumbles” he and
his fellow soldiers found
themselves in with the Viet
Cong and sprinkled with
irreverant anecdotes of a sol¬
dier’s life “in country.” The
book also contains an
unflinching look at a some¬
times difficult childhood that
led him into military service.
Hendrix, who said he
pegged Vietnam as pointless
and unwinnable while still an
18-year-old machine gunner,
pays tribute to fallen comrades
in the final chapter with a list
of the 1,748 members of his
brigade killed in action during
the war.
“Telling this story is like
taking a great weight off me,”
Planning Commission recommends new
ByToddTruelove
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County
Planning Commission on
Tuesday recommended the
Board of Commissioners
approve a commercial rezoning
request proposing a facility for
a new pharmacy and restaurant
in northeast Forsyth off Ga.
400.
The proposal comes from
Georgia Commercial Develop¬
ers, who seek to rezone 5 acres
at the intersection of Cross
Roads Road and Ga. 400 —
just south of Jot Em Down
Road — for a 22,300-square
foot commercial building.
Exactly which drug store
and restaurant would locate at
the facility has not been final¬
ized, according to Mark
Rogers who represented the
company before the planning
commission.
COUNTY S CHOOLS ft j SEEKING INPUT FOR NAMING NEW SCHOOLS
Quality Learning and Superior Peftxtmce tor Ail
The Forsyth County Board of Education is seeking community input as it searches
for names for three new schools. A community committee will be recommending
possible names to the Board on Thursday, December 15,2005. The three new
schools to be named are:
• Elementary School #5 (Estimated Opening: 2009): Located at the intersection of
Heardsville Road, Hurt Bridge Road and Heardsville Circle in west Forsyth County.
• New Elementary School #8 (Estimated Opening: 2007): Located in the extreme
southeast corner of Forsyth County approximately half-a-mile north of the Fulton
County line along McGinnis Ferry Road.
• South Relief High School (Estimated Opening: 2009): Located at the intersection
of Nichols Road and Old Atlanta Road, adjacent to Sharon Elementary.
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— FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Sunday, December 4,2005
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said Hendrix, 55, who served
as Forsyth Counjy Sheriff
from 1997 to 2000 and now
operates a private investiga¬
tion firm, FYI Private Eye.
“There are a lot of veterans
walking around with pent-up
stories. I say everybody has at
least one book in them.
Writing this had been a good
release for me.”
Hendrix said he wanted to
write the book for his chil¬
dren, now in their 20s and 30s,
so that they could “know the
life that I had, more than
something that was just told
around the dinner table. When
I started it, my main inspira¬
tion was to explain who I was,
where I had been, my success¬
es and my failures.”
After recounting the
grenade attack that left him
with severe shrapnel wounds
and ultimately ended his duty
in Vietnam, Hendrix takes
readers back to a hardscrabble
childhood in Roswell punctu-
However, Rogers did say
that he is in discussions with
drug stores including Wal¬
greens and CVS, and with
restaurant Golden Corral.
The property is currently
zoned as agricultural, and plan¬
ning commission members
unanimously recommended it
for the Board of Comissioners’
approval later this month.
No one spoke in opposition
to the proposal.
In other business during the
public hearings, the planning
commission recommended:
• A request from McGinnis
Ferry IV LLC to rezone 22
acres for a mix of commercial
and residential buildings con¬
sisting of 82 townhouses and
70,000 square feet Of retail
space on the north side of
McGinnis Ferry Road east of
the intersection with Shake
Rag Trace.
Conditions recommended
ated by domestic strife.
Hendrix, a high school
dropout who later earned his
GED while in the Army, said
the deeply personal accounts
were necessary to understand
how his life was shaped.
“I felt like if I didn’t tell
the way I was raised, the book
would not be complete and not
be truthful,” he said.
While Hendrix describes his
father in the book as distant,
immature and hot-tempered, he
said in an interview that he’s
long since forgiven his father
for his youthful inexperience in
raising a son.
“My father was so young
then,” Hendrix said. “As he
grew older and became wiser,
he became a very good man.
He’s a good, decent man today.
We’re as close today as we’ve
ever been.”
Some of the accounts in
Hendrix’ book may raise eye¬
brows, particularly a chapter
entitled “the Bomb” which
on the project included limiting
it to 45 residential permits at
the outset and that at least 40
percent must be commercial.
• A request from
Riverbrooke Capital Partners
LLC to rezone 70 acres as resi¬
dential for a subdivision locat¬
ed on the south side of Majors
Road east of the intersection
withHwy. 141.
One person spoke in oppo¬
sition to the request saying the
development would increase
traffic and negatively impact
the rural and agrarian
lifestyle” of the area.
Attorney Emory Lipscomb,
representing the applicant, said
the proposed density is 1.79
units per acre for 125 houses.
• A request from Charles
and Marjorie Mann to rezone
28.7 acres as commercial and
issue a permit for a retirement
community. Three people
spoke in support of the
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asserts that he was on a top
secret detail in Fort Bragg,
N.C., guarding and training
with a nuclear device the size
of a large watermelon.
Hendrix says he has the
documentation to back up his
claims, and was tempted to
include them in an appendix,
but decided people would
believe what they wanted to
believe.
“I’ve got the original
orders,” Hendrix said. “I’ve got
the secret clearance.”
Several grainy snapshots in
the book show Hendrix as a
lanky teen in the battlefield, a
belt-fed M-60 machine gun
propped on his shoulders. One
picture depicts Hendrix and a
squad buddy burning a hut in a
village where they received
hostile gunfire as Hendrix
appears to smile for the camera.
While Hendrix believes the
book may appeal to veterans,
he also hopes that others come
away knowing “war is not
glamorous.”
“Fighting and killing is not
glamorous,” said Hendrix, who
writes of killing numerous VCs
as a machine gunner. “Young
men who aren’t killed come
home without their arms, their
legs, their sight. If you don’t
come home physically dis¬
abled, you probably come
home mentally disabled if
you’ve been in combat, and it
request.
• A request from Real
Development LLC to rezone
52.4 acres as residential for a
subdivision located on the
south side of Pisgah Road west
of the intersection with Hurt
Bridge Road.
Lipscomb said the proposed
density of the project is 1.7
units per acre.
• A request from Richard
DeThomas to rezone 6.4 acres
as residential for a 25-lot sub¬
division with a density of 3.86
units per acre located on the
northwest side of Nichols
Drive opposite the intersection
with Sugarberry Lane.
• A request from
Watercrest Development Inc.
to rezone 19.4 acres as resi¬
dential for a subdivision locat¬
ed on the north side of Stoney
Point Road opposite the inter¬
section with Stoney Point
Farm Road with a condition
HI
Photo/Sam Freeman
Denny Hendrix’ new book, ‘Head-Hunter One Kilo!’
details his Vietnam
will take years to recover.”
For local political
observers, the blurb on the
back jacket of the book may
prove the most intriguing. It
promises another book by
Hendrix soon, this one
focused on “government cor¬
ruption, greed, racism and
murder in Forsyth County,
limiting it to a density of 1.5
units per acre.
• A request from Kip
Blackburn to rezone 2 acres for
two homes located on the west
side of Hwy. 9 south of the
intersection with Jewell
Bennett Road.
• A request from Cumming
Exchange LLC to rezone 4.5
acres as commercial for a retail
business with 90 parking
spaces located on the north
side of Hwy. 306 northeast of
the intersection with Freedom
Parkway.
• A request from Sharp
Residential to rezone 10 acres
as residential for a 25-lot
community with a density of
2.45 units per acre and locat¬
ed on the south side of
Gilbert Road east of the inter¬
section with Old Atlanta
Road.
• A request from Shore
Trading Company to rezone
Georgia.”
Hendrix says he can’t say
much about his sophomore
effort, which he hopes will be
published by early 2007.
“My legal counsel says I
can’t talk about it,” Hendrix
said. “But I’m four chapters
into it and I think it’s going to
be a good book.”
half an acre for a 1,300-square
foot office located on the south
side of Union Hill Road across
from the intersection with
Brandywine Circle.
Lipscomb said the owner
was in the seafood trading
business and would maintain
samples of seafood at the
site.
• A request from Harold E.
Crye Living Trust to rezone 4.6
acres for retail and office space
located on the west side of
Bethelview Road southeast of
the intersection with Parkway
North intersections.
• A request from W&M
Development LLC to rezone
49 acres as residential for a
subdivision located on the
north side of Burruss Road
west of the intersection with
Hopewell Road.
The development is to have
78 lots, 40 percent greenspace
and a lake.