Former Senator and Vietnam veteran Max Cleland has now passed away at the age of 79.
As Fox News reports:
Max Cleland, who lost three limbs to a Vietnam War hand grenade blast yet went on to serve as a U.S. senator from Georgia, died on Tuesday. He was 79.
Cleland died at his home in Atlanta from congestive heart failure, his personal assistant Linda Dean told The Associated Press.
Cleland, a Democrat, served one term in the U.S. Senate, losing a 2002 reelection bid to Republican Saxby Chambliss. He also served as as administrator of the U.S. Veterans Administration, as Georgia secretary of state and as a Georgia state senator.
Cleland was a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam when he lost an arm and two legs while picking up a fallen grenade in 1968. For years, Cleland blamed himself for dropping the grenade, but he learned in 1999 that another soldier had dropped it.
Cleland was later appointed to head the American Battle Monuments Commission by former President Barack Obama.
