A Gathering Of Warriors

About the Book

This story starts with my induction onto the U.S. Army basic training of Fort Knox, Kentucky to jungle warfare training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, more jungle warfare training at Fort Polk, Louisiana and more jungle warfare training at Fort Lewis, Washington. The ship ride to South Vietnam. Our arrival at Lai Khe base camp. Home of the 1st Infantry Division, The Big Red One, Delta 2nd and 28th Infantry known as the Black Lions. The ambush of the Black Lions on October 17, 1967. Other battles that happened from this date until my return home. The last few months of military duty till my release from active duty.

About the Author

I was what I would call a normal 19 year old student at Urbana College doing what any normal student would do in college. Then I was drafted into the U.S. Army I live out in the county away from other people. I stay away from crowds as much as possible. I don’t like to travel far from home. Thirty-six years after Vietnam, I went to the Dayton, Ohio Veterans Administration for my second Agent Orange test, and to find out if I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I do suffer from PTSD, and that explains a lot about my life since Vietnam. I went to Vietnam a normal person. I came back a very different person. It took 36 years before I decided to get help. I thought all those years I was okay …I was wrong. With the help of the Dayton VA and my second wife, I am able to go on with life a little better. I was told that I was emotionally amputated. All emotions gone. That explains a lot about the last 30+ years of my life. I never went back to college. I didn’t care anymore. Vietnam changed me into someone different. During the time in country (Vietnam). After October 17, 1967. I wanted to do my job even more. I was still scared, but I used it to my advantage. It gave me an edge. I got up in the morning and tried to live till noon, then make it to evening, then through the night, only to start all over again the next day. That would be one more day closer to civilization and one day less in hell. I got so used to being shot at that it did not register in my mind – it was just another day. Maybe I had lost my mind, but I was still alive. The only difference from then to present day is I don’t get shot at anymore. My body came home, but my mind never left Vietnam.