The blast of heat felt like all of Hell had opened before us as we were rushed off the plane into a war zone far from home. The late-night sky was lit by flares, and gunships filled the air with red tracer rounds from their miniguns, firing in all directions. As we hurried down the steps, other troops- those who had completed their tours-were sprinting up them, desperate to escape the madness. Their faces, like stone portraits, served as a harsh warning of what we were entering.
One young man, whose eyes told stories of horror, looked directly at me and said, "If you want to stay alive, forget everything you ever learned." Those were the first words that greeted me in Vietnam-and they're etched in my memory to this day.
The Tet Offensive was my baptism of fi re in Southeast Asia. I returned home with the war still raging inside me, haunted and asking whether there was anything left worth living for.
Then, on another late night-March 18, 1976-the battle for my heart and soul came to an end. That night, the war changed for me. Though I still carry the scars and pain deep in my soul, they now drive me to reach out to others who suffer within.
There is hope for anyone who will listen. I wrote this book so that all men may know: From Defeat to Victory-there is a way.
