“I didn’t sleep last night,” said Chicago native and decorated Marine combat veteran Maurice Daniels. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss [the stand down].” Daniels said he followed his brothers into the military immediately after graduating high school in 1967 and found himself whisked off to Vietnam, where he spent part of his 13 months deployed supporting Operation Pegasus during the famed six-month Battle of Khe Sanh.