Jenny La Sala - Never Forgotten: The Vietnam Veteran Fifty Years Later

Also by Jenny La Sala

My Family Com pass

Comes A Soldiers Whi sper

Vietnam and Beyond, Veteran Reflect ions

When Daddy Comes Home

NEVER
FORGOTTEN

THE VIETNAM VETERAN FIFTY YEARS LATER

Jenny La Sala

Copyright 2015 Jenny La Sala.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-6642-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-6641-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-6650-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015917635

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CONTENTS

Dedicated to all of the brave men and women who served. You are NEVER FORGO TTEN!

M ay 7, 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War and the beginning of the personal war that each Vietnam Veteran would battle in some way, shape or form!

Never Forgotten, by Jenny La Sala is a compilation of personal recollections, of a select group of contributing Vietnam Veterans remembering their service, their sacrifice, and their personal struggles adapting to their lives after combat. Adding insult to their already wounded souls was the heinous treatment and rejection they received from their own country when they returned home. WELCOME HOME and THANKS was never uttered to these exhausted combat warriors.

There are many Vietnam Veterans today who suffer silently from survivors guilt and the trauma of haunting, combat flashbacks. The realization of this agonizing plight for so many Nam Vets became the impetus for Jenny La Salas book, Never Forgotten. It is her desire to bridge the gap for these unsung Heroes and bring healing, hope, and closure for their tormented and wounded souls.

The great sacrifices of these service men and women will be evidenced as you read their personal stories. May we develop a deeper sense of empathy and a more compassionate understanding of their lives then and now, as we begin to grasp the impact of their personal battles they have daily struggled with to endure life.

In this world of give and take there are not enough people willing to give what it takes.

Thanks to every Vietnam Veteran for Giving What it Takes.and Welcome Home to the USA.

~ Patrick Cleburne McClary

United States Marine Corps / 1 st Lieutenenant, Retired,

Vietnam Veteran and Motivational Speaker.

Most soldiers who have witnessed atrocities of war rarely cry except when seeing friends with whom they fo ught

~ Sir Christopher Lee, Actor and WWII Vet eran

M y ancestors fought in the Civil War and my father was a decorated 101 st Airborne paratrooper during WWII. I am the sister of a Gulf War Veteran and I am a former spouse of a Vietnam Veteran.

After the passing of my father and publishing his wartime letters in Comes A Soldiers Whisper , I came to fully appreciate, both his greatness and the silent struggles he constantly battled. His letters have allowed me to offer a greater love and compassion to others impacted by what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. This silent weapon had a profound effect on my family. It was almost as though my father was ashamed to speak of those horrors of war and through his silence was bound together with his comrades. There were several occasions where my father threatened suicide. It was during the late fifties and early sixties that I remember this quite clearly. Dad would grab his hunting rifle and leave the house, taking off for the woods. I do not believe that he understood that he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress and post war anger. Perhaps he was instinctively trying to rid himself of his demons. As a young girl, I didnt understand it. Maybe the thing that saved him, was the peace and serenity of nature that he loved so much. I recall the house becoming very quiet and never knowing if he would return. He always did though, and with everyone behaving as though nothing had happened. So this became the norm for my family. It took me over fifty years to come to terms with my fathers threats. At first, I did not want to mention it, for fear of dishonoring his memory. But then I realized that my silence was part of the problem, and so I decided to break free from the fear and allow the healing to begin. With the ever-growing rate of suicide among the military and Veterans, my fathers behavior was not so very different from the soldiers of today. May we open our hearts so they can take the risk to speak out, heal from it and move forward.

Never Forgotten is the result of collecting hundreds of stories from Veterans of all wars ranging from WWII to what is currently called the War on Terrorism. It is interesting that our country chooses to not call any of the wars since Vietnam, an actual war. They are carefully referred to as a conflict and operation. Perhaps this is a way to avoid protests by the general public like they did during the Vietnam War and yet some of these conflicts and operations have been going on for over twenty years now.

Many, if not all of the people from my generation were involved with the Vietnam War one way or another. I remember the young men in my graduating class of 1969 being drafted and sent to a country so far away. I felt helpless and confused. I have often wondered what happened to those young men from my hometown of Portage, Indiana.

With 2015 marking the 50 th Anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War, I felt it appropriate to publish a collection of stories as told by the Vietnam Veteran in his or her own words. It has been an honor and privilege to collect these stories revealing the many layers of the soldiers experience and sacrifice. They are compelling and heartfelt. They reveal a longing for their voices to be heard. Veterans are among the most humble group of Americans that I have ever encountered. If you are looking for a historical and academic resource for the Vietnam War, this book is not for you. The sole purpose of this publication was to Welcome Home, our Vietnam Veterans and to share their heartfelt recollections of war. I reached out to them for their stories, many of which declined at first. They were fearful of how they would be perceived. They are still suffering from public opinion of the Vietnam Era, which delayed any chance for rehabilitation. For the most part, Vietnam Veterans did not begin to seek help for PTSD until 35 plus years later and are now in their sixties and seventies, many of whom are experiencing the symptoms of Agent Orange.

The outcome of sharing their stories has been a healing experience for the Veterans in this book, their families and for myself. I feel blessed and honored to have met such a remarkable group of Americans. We should not be ashamed of those things we privately fear, for they never go away. By keeping things bottled up inside, they only get stronger and more powerful. The stories reflect sacrifice and feelings of loneliness, homesickness, and fear by the men and women who served their country in one of the darkest periods of our history. They give insight to what they carried with them on and off the battlefield and still do, to this day.