Inside an office building in West Los Angeles, retired Marine Maj. James Capers Jr. stood tall and strong in his signature spit-shined black cowboy boots. Under the shadow of a red Force Recon Association hat and tinted glasses, Capers’ eyes wore a hardened look that made no effort to hide the darkness and despair that […]
Vietnam War
Posted inReflections
I Typed Forms While Other Men Went to War. That Shame Shaped My Life
On the day I left the Army, a sergeant in dress uniform took my hand and held it while he spoke. “On behalf of the president of the United States, the people of the United States, and myself, I want to thank you for your service to our country.” He called me Mr. Thompson. Not […]
Posted inReflections
Every Ambush in Vietnam Held Surprises. This One Ended in Death
More than five decades after 1968, an especially violent year of the war, the rain, hunger, and calamity in Vietnam’s Central Highlands remain etched in my mind. Death was the purpose of our ambush, and we found it. I was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 3rd Battalion’s A Company as a forward observer, tasked […]
Posted inReflections
I Watched an Execution. Was She a Viet Cong Spy—or Just Fighting for Her Country?
The sun was a physical weight that afternoon, an oppressive, wet heat that seemed to pin everything to the red dust of our base camp in Kon Tum, Vietnam. I was 19, a supply sergeant, and my world was defined by our perimeter wire and the daily inventory of survival. “Notice anything strange about her, […]
Posted inReflections
The Vietnam War Killed My Father Decades After His Tour. Am I a Middle-Aged Gold Star Child?
I stood in a Brooklyn post office renewing my teenage son’s passport, hoping to board a plane by summertime. When I paid with a USAA check, the postal worker thanked me for my service. I deflected as usual: “Oh no, I didn’t serve, my father served.” I have USAA imposter syndrome; I know I didn’t […]
Posted inReflections
I Wanted Peace, Freedom, and to Vote in Vietnam. The Air Force Was Not Amused
In August 1968, I turned 22 years old, and for the first time in my life I was eligible to vote in a presidential election. The only problem was that I was in Vietnam and when I suggested to my boss that I be given some time off to return to New York to cast […]
Posted inReflections
Vietnam Was Scary Enough. Friday the 13th Added To Our Fear
Superstition blankets a platoon of soldiers as they hunt and fight the Viet Cong on Friday the 13th.
Posted inReflections
What Caused Maurice’s PTSD: The Vietnam War or Being Black in America?
The partner of a Vietnam War veteran wonders what role race and war played in his PTSD diagnoses.
Posted inReflections
On a Remote Military Base During the Vietnam War, Books Offered an Escape
During the Vietnam War, an Air Force radio operator becomes the librarian of a remote base in the Philippines.
Posted inReflections
The Fight After the Fight: My Dad’s War Didn’t End When He Left Vietnam
The daughter of a Marine who fought in the Vietnam War talks about what it’s like growing up with a father who suffered from PTSD and cancer.
Posted inNewsroom
The Bonus Army of World War I Fought for Their Pay. Now, Veterans Are Fighting For Their Jobs
Veterans to gather in Washington D.C. to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to Veterans Affairs and federal jobs. Jon Stewart among the speakers.
Posted inNewsroom
Their Bombs Destroyed–and Still Threaten–Villages. Vietnam-Era Veterans Are Going Back to Help and Heal
Veterans find healing by helping rebuild from the destruction the U.S. military left in Laos during the CIA’s “secret war.”
