VIETNAM UNCENSORED: A SOLDIER’S JOURNEY THROUGH 365 DAYS IN A NIGHTMARE

Insights into “Vietnam Uncensored”

It became quickly apparent that the life we thought would come later possessed no substance. After all, we were dead men walking when facing the daily existential threat of the Vietnam War. Yet, amidst the chaos of destruction, injury, and death, we managed to hold on to the dreams of home as our destination. The best attitude was to view our military duty as a job needing completion in the present to secure the future. Many succeeded, but more than 58,000 died, 150,000 returned wounded, and 22,000 committed suicides from the effects of PTSD.

Some challenges tried to break us like a dungeon, holding a thousand ways to step into the abyss of eternity. Making the right choices became difficult when every decision went south and never happened as instructed, planned, or thought. And yet, each day, I was expected to pick the route to proceed., How was it possible to know when the coordinates on the maps were inaccurate? The bombing missions inadvertently blanketed the territory we were to use, artillery included us in the target, air support rarely arrived when needed, and everyone and everything was out to end us.

We were a team, part of a unit, but it did not take much to realize we were alone once we entered the assignment. We had each…