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A Knight's Journey into Shangri La
by Thomas I. Whelan
320 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-0169; ISBN 1-4120-2341-6; US$26.75, C$33.44, EUR23.00, £16.00
This book is the memoirs of American Soldiers in the Vietnam war spending most of their time tiring to stay alive.
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About the Book About the Author Excerpts Catalogue Information
About the Book
Fighting an unseen enemy at times and fighting them on their terms most of the time. They were like a fighting "ghost". The mines and booby traps took their toll on all of us Americans and Vietmanese themselves. Then there was the jungles: a unforgiving place to be at, for a tour of duty.
About the Author
I was born in Centralia, Illinois on August 31st 1949 to Irvin and Francis Whelan, and was the only son of six children. We all were raised in the town of Flora, Illinois. My parents haled from Kentucky before moving to Kansas, during the depression years, and my father started working a government program called the CCC's. Somehow later my father got a lucky break, and got a job working in the oil fields of Kansas, for Shell Oil company. He was then transferred to southern Illinois where he worked his tail off, making ends meet, until his retirement. Mother was a seamstress, making all the clothes for my sisters plus cheerleader outfits, Prom dresses, Wedding dresses, even my shirts, with the buttons, and the button-holes on the reverse sides. She pretty much made just about anything. Quilts, throw rugs, afghans, bed spreads, pillows with pillowcases that had crocheted designed ends, drapes with sheers, hung wall paper, and made homemade bread every weekend. She did a thousand things in between these times as well, yet had the time for us, and all the neighbors, and other people we didn't know were welcomed in our home. We may not have had much, but I thought that we were the riches people around. They are both gone now, I think of them often, everyday it seems.
I have four older sisters, Doris, Christine, Agnes, and Elizabeth and one younger than me her name is Lynn. All of them are very beautiful and I'm very proud of them. I have two wonderful sons, Clayton and Jason that do so very well and who are fine young gentlemen. They are married and both have beautiful wives, Mary and Brandy. My grand children are Alex, and Anna, who belong to Clay, and Mary. Then there is Brandon who belongs to Jason, and Brandy. I'm a very proud, and blessed man to be honored to have them.
I graduated from Flora Township high school in 1967, and soon after at 17 enlisted into the Army. I always wanted to be a knight in shinning armor, helping people less fortunate then me. I felt that I had done so when I was in Vietnam, and continue to do so now.
I reside in Dixon, Illinois and retired in the year 2000 after working 30 years for a utility company. After retirement I started flying helicopters, but I had flown smaller airplanes for 34 years. I write poetry and have had several of my poems published.
I have had some very tough times with myself after Vietnam, but I do my best to move forward, seeking that field, trying not to think about what had shattered my heart so badly. I wrote Knight's Journey, as a cleansing to me, as my heart mends, like getting things off my chest, sort of speaking, or maybe it is a confessional, I believe.
I am proud that I served with the unit that I did with in Vietnam, the 173rd Airborne Brigade. We were known as The Sky Soldiers, or White Winged Warriors, and who are to this day one of the most elite forces to serve with, and to be a part of. I'm also very proud, that I was able to serve in the Vietnam War but not the way it cost us as a nation, let alone what it did to many families of men, and women that paid the supreme price, and very much for those who were able to return home, and still carry that strange guilt feeling for doing so. But still someone has to fulfill the trench duties for the price of freedom that we as Americans maintain for the families leaved behind, as soldiers fulfill their duty.
Knight's Journey was very tough for me to write, which I cried many tears over the years, having many nightmarish horrors, of long ago skeletons that didn't want to let go of me, as I was trying desperately to put out the flames that burned within me of the war.
I not only dedicate this book to my parents who suffered so much for the years that I was gone during my tours of duty, but to all the gallant soldiers living, and dead who fought in the Vietnam War. Thank You Brothers!
Excerpts
