In this collection of stories, Vietnam Veteran Bruce I. McDaniel explores his feelings about the process of coming home from the war.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

His final mission may be the most dangerous of all…to her heart. Autumn Messina has finally put herself first and achieved her dream of becoming a teacher. She’s only sorry it’s come at the expense of having to sell the once thriving Messina Farm. Autumn loves her father and the farm, but she can’t do it all, and her brother has no plans to move back home. And then her brother’s best friend saunters back into her life even more handsome than she remembers and arrogantly full of plans and answers to questions she no longer wants to ask. After exiting his special forces unit to return home to Last Stand, Sam Russell feels duty bound to help his best friend’s struggling family farm. He’s not expecting such fierce resistance in the form of a still-angry Autumn, who’s become even more beautiful and tempting in his years away. Autumn doesn’t want his help, but Sam has never given up so easily. And what starts off as just doing his duty quickly becomes something much more personal.

“Here is what you will not find in the news–the personal cost of war written as clear and beautiful as literature worthy of the name is. These stories are the real thing, passionate, imaginative, searing.” –Richard Bausch, author of Wives & Lovers The first book of its kind, Operation Homecoming is the result of a major initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to bring distinguished writers to military bases and inspire U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen and their families to record their wartime experiences. Encouraged by such authors as Tom Clancy, Mark Bowden, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff, Jeff Shaara, and Marilyn Nelson, American military personnel and their loved ones wrote candidly about what they saw, heard, and felt while in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as on the home front. Taken together, these almost one hundred never-before-published eyewitness accounts, private journals, short stories, letters, and other personal writings become a dramatic narrative that shows the human side of warfare. • the fear and exhilaration of heading into battle; • the interactions between U.S. forces and Afghans and Iraqis, both as enemies and friends; • the boredom, gripes, and humorous incidents of day-to-day life on the front lines; • the anxiety and heartache of worried spouses, parents, and other loved ones on the home front; • the sheer brutality of warfare and the physical and emotional toll it takes on those who fight; • the tearful homecomings for those who returned to the States alive– and the somber ceremonies for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. From riveting combat accounts to profound reflections on warfare and the pride these troops feel for one another, Operation Homecoming offers an unflinching and intensely revealing look into the lives of extraordinary men and women. What they have written is without question some of the greatest wartime literature ever published. “Andrew Carroll has given America a priceless treasure.” –Tom Brokaw, on War Letters Proceeds from this book will be used to provide arts and cultural programming to U.S. military communities. For more information, please go to www.OperationHomecoming.gov.

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."

Unsure whether they would be greeted as traitors or heroes, POWs returning from Vietnam responded by holding tight to their chosen motto, "Return with Honor." "We're giving the American people what they want and badly need--heroes," said a Vietnam jungle POW. "I feel it's our responsibility, our duty to help them where possible shed the idea this war was a waste, useless, as unpopular as it may have been." In the first book to explore the entire range of memoirs, biographies, and group histories published since America's Vietnam POWs returned home, Craig Howes explores the development of a collective history. He describes how these captives drew upon their national heritage to compose a unified, common story while still in prison, and how individual POWs have responded to this Official Story. Examining what racial, cultural, and political assumptions support this shared Official Story, Howes places the POWs' experiences squarely in the center of American history, and within those larger clashes of opinion and belief which characterized the nation's response to the Vietnam War. The result is an engrossing study of what these captivity narratives can tell us about the POWs, their captors, and America's Vietnam legacy.