Born on the Fourth of July

Ron Kovic served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War. He was paralyzed from his chest down in combat in 1968 and has been in a wheelchair ever since. Along with Oliver Stone, Kovic was the coscreenwriter of the 1989 Academy Award-winning film based on Kovic's best-selling memoir Born on the Fourth of July (Tom Cruise stars in the role of Kovic in the film).