For 50 years, civilians have avoided hearing about the controversial experiences of Vietnam veterans, many of whom suffer through post-traumatic stress alone. Through interviews conducted with 17 soldiers, this book shares the stories of those who have been silenced. These men and women tell us about life before and after the war. They candidly share stories of 40–plus years lived on the “edge of the knife” and many wonder what their lives would be like if they had come home to praise and parades. They offer their tragedies and successes to newer veterans as choices to be made or rejected.

Jacqueline Murray Loring writes stage plays and narrative, feature-length movie scripts. Since 2013, she has written or co-written nine short scripts that were filmed. Her articles and poetry are published in many publications and in 2012 she was the winner of the Doire Press Irish International Poetry Chap Book Prize. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jacqueline Murray Loring

Foreword by Jack Bonino

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 212
Bibliographic Info: 73 photos, appendices, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7707-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3663-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments viii
Foreword by Jack Bonino 1
Preface 4
Section I. It Mattered to Me: Growing Up in America and Arriving in Vietnam 7
Section II. Losses and Crosses: Coping with Coming Home 38
Middle Section. Photographs: Medals, Memorials and Memories 82
Section III. Language of a Single Tear: ­Post-Traumatic Stress and ­Self-Imposed Silence 88
Section IV. Still Twisted: Resiliency and Outreach 135
Appendix A: Joan Fye 187
Appendix B: Sherrill Ashton 190
Index 193

• Winner, Arizona New Mexico Book Award for History/Current Events

• Finalist, National Federation of Press Women’s Communications Contest

• “Loring analyzes the damage caused by war and enables the more controversial experiences of Vietnam veterans to be told”—Library Journal