Author : Bruce McDaniel
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 65 pages
File Size : 23,60 MB
Release : 2017-06-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1387041975
In this collection of stories, Vietnam Veteran Bruce I. McDaniel explores his feelings about the process of coming home from the war.
Author : Travis L. Martin
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 10,5 MB
Release : 2022-07-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0813195659
In War & Homecoming: Veteran Identity and the Post-9/11 Generation, Travis L. Martin explores how a new generation of veterans is redefining what it means to come home. More than 2.7 million veterans served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their homecomings didn't include parades or national celebrations. Instead, when the last US troops left Afghanistan, American veterans raised millions of dollars for the evacuation of Afghan refugees, especially those who'd served alongside them. This brand of selflessness is one reason civilians regard veterans with reverence and pride. The phrase "thank you for your service" is ubiquitous. Yet, one in ten post-9/11 veterans struggles with substance abuse. Fifteen to twenty veterans die by suicide every day. Veterans aged eighteen to thirty-four die at the highest rates, leading advocates to focus on concepts like moral injury and collective belonging when addressing psychic wounds. Martin argues that many veterans struggle due to decades of stereotyping and a lack of healthy models of veteran identity. In the American unconscious, veterans are treated as either the superficially praised "hero" or the victimized "wounded warrior," forever defined by past accomplishments. They are often appropriated as symbols in competing narratives of national identity. War & Homecoming critically examines representations of veterans in patriotic rhetoric, popular media, literature, and the lives of those who served. From this analysis, a new veteran identity emerges—veterans as storytellers who reject stereotypes, claim their symbolic authority, and define themselves through literature, art, and service. Their dynamic approach to life after military service allows for continued growth, agency, individuality, and inspiring examples of resilience for others.
Author : Robert J. Dvorchak
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 663 pages
File Size : 47,29 MB
Release : 2022-12-06
Category : History
ISBN : 1637584709
An epic tale of a brotherhood forged by war—masterfully told by a lifelong journalist, war correspondent, and U.S. Army veteran. “A must-read by military historians who follow the 82nd Airborne Division. It is a compilation of fascinating stories by brave soldiers who found themselves in the crucible of fierce combat.” —LTG (Retired) James H. Johnson, 82nd Airborne Division Commander, Panama and Desert Storm “This book is the best I have ever read about the real situation experienced by infantrymen in the Vietnam War. The stories honor the American soldier and their families, and demonstrate the pride all of us had in these men and their leaders…. A grand slam hit out of the park.” —Robert D. Murrill, Esq., Distinguished Member of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Golden Brigade “It is a story that needs to be told, and one that all paratroopers, young and old, need to know. When the nation calls, there were and must always be those who will answer—even if it means they sacrifice their todays so that others will experience their tomorrows.” —J. Thomas Hennessey Jr., Colonel (Retired), Distinguished Member of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Chief of Staff Emeritus at George Mason University “A solid chunk of history about an extraordinary brotherhood of warriors.” —Vietnam Veterans of America
Author : Jerry Lembcke
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 49,1 MB
Release : 2000-05-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1479864862
How the startling image of an anti-war protested spitting on a uniformed veteran misrepresented the narrative of Vietnam War political debate One of the most resilient images of the Vietnam era is that of the anti-war protester — often a woman — spitting on the uniformed veteran just off the plane. The lingering potency of this icon was evident during the Gulf War, when war supporters invoked it to discredit their opposition. In this startling book, Jerry Lembcke demonstrates that not a single incident of this sort has been convincingly documented. Rather, the anti-war Left saw in veterans a natural ally, and the relationship between anti-war forces and most veterans was defined by mutual support. Indeed one soldier wrote angrily to Vice President Spiro Agnew that the only Americans who seemed concerned about the soldier's welfare were the anti-war activists. While the veterans were sometimes made to feel uncomfortable about their service, this sense of unease was, Lembcke argues, more often rooted in the political practices of the Right. Tracing a range of conflicts in the twentieth century, the book illustrates how regimes engaged in unpopular conflicts often vilify their domestic opponents for "stabbing the boys in the back." Concluding with an account of the powerful role played by Hollywood in cementing the myth of the betrayed veteran through such films as Coming Home, Taxi Driver, and Rambo, Jerry Lembcke's book stands as one of the most important, original, and controversial works of cultural history in recent years.
Author : John Joseph DeFazio
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 50 pages
File Size : 26,95 MB
Release : 2020-01-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1532698836
Readers today often express an interest in reading something “real,” just as many movie goers look for films “based on a true story.” One cannot find anything more real than this book. Every contributor is invested in its vision, and each one personally offers to help readers. In this sense, this book’s impact goes far beyond the pages. Joe DeFazio is the point person and his humbly expressed record of what he is able to accomplish for other suffering veterans is nothing short of heroic. Bruce McDaniel, a multi-decorated medic, is also an understated hero who, with his wife and family, has extended a life of compassion long after the Vietnam War’s end into today, taking refugee children into their home to love and rear. His own thoughtful reflections on the war and its aftermath in his afterword to this book and his own Walk through the Valley: The Spiritual Journey of a Vietnam War Medic and The Hardest Part: Homecoming Stories from the Vietnam War bear out Joe’s concerns and example. You won’t come away from this brief book the same. It will widen your vision of how you too can help.
Author : Dong-Yeon Koh
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 37,98 MB
Release : 2021-07-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1000407551
This pioneering volume navigates cultural memory of the Korean War through the lens of contemporary arts and film in South Korea for the last two decades. Cultural memory of the Korean War has been a subject of persistent controversy in the forging of South Korean postwar national and ideological identity. Applying the theoretical notion of “postmemory,” this book examines the increasingly diversified attitudes toward memories of the Korean War and Cold War from the late 1990s and onward, particularly in the demise of military dictatorships. Chapters consider efforts from younger generation artists and filmmakers to develop new ways of representing traumatic memories by refusing to confine themselves to the tragic experiences of survivors and victims. Extensively illustrated, this is one of the first volumes in English to provide an in-depth analysis of work oriented around such themes from 12 renowned and provocative South Korean artists and filmmakers. This includes documentary photographs, participatory public arts, independent women’s documentary films, and media installations. The Korean War and Postmemory Generation will appeal to students and scholars of film studies, contemporary art, and Korean history.
Author : Thomas C. Utts
Publisher : Publish America
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 45,75 MB
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN :
Early in the 20th century, the hoofbeats of U.S. Cavalry horses were a familiar sound at Americaas new base in the Philippines. At the beginning of WWII, Japanese bombs destroyed American planes on the runway. After the war, the base played a vital role, providing men and equipment to wars in Korea and Vietnama]until the 1991 monster eruption of Mt. Pinatubo sent American airmen away, never to return. This gritty, poignant, humorous, and sometimes disturbing chronicle reconstructs the 90-year history of what was the largest, and one of the most colorful, overseas United States military bases. That story is told in previously unpublished letters, writings, and personal accounts by the men, women, and families who were stationed there.
Author : Jonathan Shay
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 49,20 MB
Release : 2010-05-11
Category : History
ISBN : 1439125015
In this ambitious follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life. Seamlessly combining important psychological work and brilliant literary interpretation with an impassioned plea to renovate American military institutions, Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran's experience and one of the world's greatest classics. In Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay used the story of the Iliad as a prism through which to examine how ancient and modern wars have battered the psychology of the men who fight. Now he turns his attention to the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the real problems faced by combat veterans reentering civilian society. The Odyssey, Shay argues, offers explicit portrayals of behavior common among returning soldiers in our own culture: danger-seeking, womanizing, explosive violence, drug abuse, visitation by the dead, obsession, vagrancy and homelessness. Supporting his reading with examples from his fifteen-year practice treating Vietnam veterans, Shay shows how Odysseus's mistrustfulness, his lies, and his constant need to conceal his thoughts and emotions foreshadow the experiences of many of today's veterans. He also explains how veterans recover and advocates changes to American military practice that will protect future servicemen and servicewomen while increasing their fighting power. Throughout, Homer strengthens our understanding of what a combat veteran must overcome to return to and flourish in civilian life, just as the heartbreaking stories of the veterans Shay treats give us a new understanding of one of the world's greatest classics.
Author : Jeanne C. DeFazio
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 50,51 MB
Release : 2022-10-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1666747475
This book is a retrospective and model for the postmodern church for revival and reform containing actual primary source quotations from all those involved. It is a unique primary source history of Jesus Movement reflections and not just another secondary book. There is nothing like it available on this seminal, significant, and influential ministry.
Author : Gary Kulik
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 507 pages
File Size : 15,32 MB
Release : 2009-10-31
Category : History
ISBN : 1597976377
War stories are mostly innocent fables and understood as such by both the teller and the hearer. However, they have long been used for political and national purposes, and those about the war in Vietnam were no exception, as painfully evidenced in the 2004 presidential campaign. John Kerry campaigned as a war hero. His opponents cast him as a liar and a traitor and their war story prevailed. ""War Stories"" delves into the myths associated with the Vietnam veteran s experience and looks at them through the war stories they told and continue to tell. Kulik conducts an extremely thorough review of the Vietnam literature and interviews participants wherever possible, poking holes in the war myths of people throughout the political spectrum. War Stories discusses how returning Vietnam vets were treated and delves into the myths that atrocities were commonplace, that all veterans of that war suffer from PTSD, and that all are guilt ridden. Kulik s research and analysis of such stories lies at the heart of this book s originality and provides a new perspective on the Vietnam War for scholars, students, and general readers. His purpose in exposing such stories is not to deny or minimize American war crimes in Vietnam but to cut through the cant of false stories so that we retain our outrage at those that are true. As we are faced with future war stories from Iraq and Afghanistan and their likely exploitation, the moral stance and the lessons learned in this book will be especially important."
