Stories of War I Tell

About the Book

Stories of War I Tell is my memories of a war put into words. It begins when I was drafted and sent to Fort Polk, Louisiana where I was trained as an Infantryman in Tiger Land. From there I was sent to fight in the villages and rice paddies of South Vietnam in 1968. It's stories of my combat experiences as a Scout Observer with recon platoon, 1st Battalion 501st infantry, 101st Airborne Division.

It's my recollections of what it was like to be an Infantryman in Vietnam. How the emotional effects of combat and the harsh environment tested nerves and hardened hearts. It's stories of being on ambush and being ambushed by an unseen enemy. It's stories of death and how fast it can come on the battlefield.

I share tense moments of combat assaults into hot LZs and the fear that gripped one's soul during a firefight. It's memories captured in words of the landscape, the Vietnamese people, their village and the rice paddies they farmed. They reflect life in the boonies, long days and nights, mosquitoes, bugs and snakes. It's about flying in Hueys, Base Camps, stand-downs, Fire Support Bases, helicopter gunships and even a Typhoon. It's about fellow soldiers I served with and the times we shared individually and as a unit. It's memories put in words of saying goodbye to friends and coming home. It's about life after Vietnam and the difficulty of readjustment. Of finding peace from the haunting memories and the fears they brought. I wrote of a war that at times still seems like yesterday. It's my stories of war I tell.

About the Author

I grew up on a small farm in South Mississippi. My Mom and Dad struggles to feed, cloth and send to school five kids in which I was the fourth of four boys and one girl. We didn't have much. It took all of us kids working odd jobs and doing what we could to help make ends meat. There were two things my Daddy believed in that came before our working and that was church and school.

At the end of the senior year, I, like many others received a draft notice from the local draft board. Within a few months after graduation, I was on my way to a war I knew little about. I got out of high school in May of 1967, was drafted in September, and was in Vietnam by March. For a farm boy, who had only once in his life been over a hundred miles from home, this was quite an experience.

By the grace of God I survived my tour of duty in Vietnam. I returned home scarred and traumatized from the horrors of combat. With haunting flashbacks and memories of the war tugging at my soul, I would, at times, crawl into a shell of seclusion and spend hours locked in a hollow stare. Even though I was no longer in Vietnam, deep down inside I was reliving the ferocity of combat and the horrors of death day after day. After several years of struggling, I found peace in a boyhood Friends that I had ignored and disregarded due to the hardness of my heart. But, at a time in my life when I needed Him the most, God rescued my soul one more time. It was He who inspired the writing of this book and it was He who gave me the title and placed the words in my spirit to write. It is He whom I give credit for my life and this book. For that I say "Thank you Lord."